I still remember the day: private room, champagne, chocolates, a sales associate with the voice of a diplomat. The bag was exactly what she wanted — classic, clean, and undeniably her. It wasn’t just a gift; it was a moment. A ceremony. And, like any collector worth their salt, she logged it in WAX the same week. Vaulted, valued, insured.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I was attending a Sotheby’s event — mostly watch-hunting, if I’m honest — when a particular bag caught my eye. Displayed like a crown jewel, set under soft light and museum-grade glass, was a beat-up Birkin. Patina for days. Weathered. Lived in. But it wasn’t the wear that made it priceless — it was the name on the provenance card: Jane Birkin.
Yes. That Birkin. The woman the bag was literally named after. The bag that birthed a category. The grail of grails. And this was hers.
Naturally, I snapped a photo and sent it to my wife.
Her response?
“Is that Jane Birkin’s Birkin?”
“Yes.”
“It had a strap?!”
That’s the kind of collector she is. Not wowed by the celebrity provenance or the auction setting — she honed in on the bag’s hardware setup like a Sotheby’s curator at a pre-inspection. The shoulder strap was unexpected, unorthodox, delightfully wrong. We laughed about it. But then the bag hit the block.
The Auction Heard 'Round the Handbag World
Jane Birkin’s original Hermès Birkin — the prototype she co-designed with Jean-Louis Dumas after that now-legendary airplane encounter — sold at auction in Paris for €8.6 million (roughly $10.1 million USD). That’s not a typo. The sale obliterated the previous handbag auction record by orders of magnitude.
The bag’s imperfections made it perfect. Non-removable shoulder strap. Nail clipper charm. Personal stickers and trinkets. Birkin famously “Birkin-ified” all her bags with unapologetic flair — sparking a style movement and humanizing a brand known for pristine exclusivity. She auctioned this very bag for charity not once, but twice. The final buyer? A private collector from Japan who understood that what they were buying wasn’t just a bag — it was a relic.
A Better Kind of Provenance
We live in an era where condition matters — but story matters more. Whether it’s a Submariner worn by your grandfather or a beat-up Birkin lugged through Paris protests, the best collectibles are the ones that live a little.
So yes, Jane Birkin’s Birkin had a strap. It also had stains, scuffs, and a soul. And now, it has a permanent place in collecting history and culture.
