THE ORIGINAL BIRKIN bag designed by French luxury brand Hermes for celebrity Jane Birkin has sold for a whopping €8.58m at an auction in Paris.

The final price at a Sotheby’s auction today smashed previous price records for a handbag.

“After weeks of anticipation, the bidding opened at 1 million euros — prompting a gasp from the room,” Sotheby’s said in a statement. The final price grew to more than eight times the opening bid.

Sotheby’s had advised that the Birkin prototype was expected to set records.

The identity of the buyer has not been revealed so far.

The Birkin bags made by Hermes aren’t available for customers to pick up off the shelf or order online; customers must be offered a bag by a salesperson in order to buy one, and often need to build up a purchasing history with the brand before having the opportunity to buy a Birkin.

Even then, customers don’t get to choose the colour or material of the Birkin bag they’re offered, though they can sometimes make a ‘wish’ for the specifications they’d like (but with no guarantee of receiving a bag that aligns with their desires).

The limitations on buying a bag directly from Hermes has meant that the resale market for the bags – where interested customers can have more control over when and what type of Birkin they purchase – is an extremely lucrative one, making Birkins a popular investment for luxury-item traders.

Several Birkin bags pictured during an auction in 2020 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The concept for the bag emerged in 1983 during a Paris–London flight when  singer and actress Jane Birkin complained to a fellow traveller about not being able to find a bag suited to her needs as a young mother.

That fellow passenger happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, then head of Hermes.

The result of their conversation was a spacious tote named the Birkin.

The original Birkin bag made for Jane Birkin has changed hands twice since it was put up for sale by the actress herself at an auction in 1994, where the proceeds went to an AIDS charity.

Today’s seller, Catherine Benier, who has a boutique in the upmarket 6th district in Left Bank Paris, told The New York Times before the sale that the bag was the “jewel in my collection”.

The condition of the original bag “reflects the many years of use by the actress and singer,” Sotheby’s said.

The previous record sale price for a handbag at auction was set by a diamond- and white gold-encrusted crocodile skin Hermes Kelly 28 which fetched nearly $513,000 in 2021 at Christie’s in Hong Kong. 

Additional reporting by AFP