The fashion world is reeling following the recent sale of an original Hermès handbag owned by Jane Birkin at an auction in Europe.
The item — considered the original Birkin bag and was made expressly for the late actress and singer back in 1984 — fetched a whopping €8.58 million ($15.2 million AUD) at a Paris sale hosted by fine goods auction house Sotheby’s.
The story goes that Birkin, a darling of France’s fashion circles, collaborated with the then-head of Hermès Jean-Louis Dumas to design the bag during a shared flight to London in the 80s.
Soon after, Hermès exclusively commissioned the bag for Birkin, branding it with her initials and delivering the finished one-of-a-kind item to her for personal use.
The commercialised version of the Birkin bag would go on to become one the world’s most exclusive luxury items with years-long waiting lists and ludicrous price tags, but it is the OG bag owned and used by Birkin in the 80s that just went to auction in Paris.
What did the original Birkin bag sell for?
Birkin’s original handbag — which she sported for nine years and which still bears notable signs of use, including the stickers she put on its black leather — broke the record for the most expensive fashion accessory ever sold at auction in Europe.
It reportedly spawned a 13-minute bidding war between nine collectors, including some who joined by phone and online.
According to reports, the bidding opened with a starting price of one million euros, drawing audible gasps from those who attended the auction.
The sale means the OG Birkin has now become the second-most expensive fashion item ever sold globally, with that title currently held the Ruby Red Slippers from The Wizard of Oz, which fetched $$43.8 million AUD last year.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, described the sale as a “startling demonstration of the power of a legend” (per The Guardian).
Who purchased the original Birkin bag?
According to Sotheby’s, it was an online bidder who got their hands on the original Birkin, though details around exactly who won the bidding war remain scarce.
It’s reported that an unidentified collector from Japan forked out the eye-watering sum, which doesn’t include the expected €1.6 million in additional taxes and commissions.
The unidentified collector apparently duked it out with the second-highest bidder for some time before the gavel landed, with payment expected to be made by July 15.
The sale quelled previous concerns that the OG Birkin bag would go to a celebrity, with fans speculating before the auction that it was being eyed by Kim Kardashian and Jeff Bezos’ wife Lauren Sánchez.
Thankfully for fashion fans, the sale confirmed that neither of those celebs will be adding the handbag to their wardrobe rotation, so we won’t be getting a dreaded Kim Marilyn Monroe moment again. Phew!
The original Birkin has been sold twice for undisclosed sums before this most recent auction: once when it was donated to an auction benefitting a French AIDS charity in 1994, and again in 2000 to Parisian collector Catherine Benier, who has held on to it since.
Lead images: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images and Tristan Fewings/Getty Image
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