Jane Birkin’s original Birkin bag – the prototype for the famed accessory that bears the London-born actress and singer’s name – was sold today at a very hyped-up Sotheby’s Paris auction to an unidentified Japanese buyer for nearly CAD$11.2 million. This is the world record for a handbag.
Celebrity clothing auctions have become wild these days, with a Diana, Princess of Wales dress sale also setting records in recent weeks at Christie’s in New York. But here is a thought: What if this is a turning point in status culture?
Jane Birkin, who died in 2023 at age 76, did not keep her purse in a well-lit and sealed, museum quality display case. She used it and used it hard; she packed it jam-full of things, from diapers in her early mom years to lipstick, books and a baguette. “I always have to use it with one hand because it’s stuffed so full,” she said in a Guardian interview in 2011. “It’s been repaired many times, with stickers all over it and drawings from my children. But it’s still the best.”
There is a famous photo of her carrying it with a Tibetan flag on the front; she hung trinkets (including her nail clippers!) off the handles. Forget the current perverse and regrettable Labubu charm trend: Jane Birkin was into quirky purse adornment 40 years ago.
Which is what makes the sale of this original piece a possible scenario flip in the luxury bag game. Perversely it brings a lack of pretense back to the forefront: in recent years the Birkin has become almost unattainable, (with prices now ranging from $10K to upwards of multiple six figure sums for the rare skins or limited editions).
Celebrities like the Kardashians and Cardi B flex on their rainbow array of Birkins – some with exotic animal skins – in their massive purse closets. The new Mrs. Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, held her bridal shower at the Hermès Paris flagship, presumably to shop privately with her yacht entourage.
But what has made Birkins such a point of fascination to the masses is that you cannot just go into a store and buy one, at any price. Hermès makes customers jump through hoops, building up a client’s spend by having them buy all the other accoutrement – the crockery and the clothes and the scarves, at a volume level – before they are offered a bag to buy.
Birkin, on the other hand, met the Hermès scion and then-CEO, Jean-Louis Dumas, on a flight back in the ’80s. He observed her struggling to fit all her necessities into a plastic bag (her trademark straw basket had been run over by a car belonging to her boyfriend, director Jacques Doillon). She asked Dumas why Hermès didn’t make a more voluminous luxury handbag. They worked together on the design on the back of an air sickness bag. Genius, really. And so ironic, considering the almost cheesy status symbols for reality TV and hip-hop stars that Birkins have become.
What the bag was and what it has become just do not align. Yes, this bag, with the British-French singer/actress/style icon’s initials stamped on it, is a piece of history. See, over the years, Birkin was given successive Birkin bags after she had beat them up just going about living her life; when she was finished with them, she always sold them at auction and gave the money to charity. In fact, this particular bag was first auctioned to raise money for AIDS in 1994 and has been held in private hands ever since. There are shades of Diana, here too, who in 1997 auctioned 79 pieces of clothing for AIDS and cancer research.
The era of the “It Bag” peaked just before the 2008 market crash, a crazy compulsive time of conspicuous consumption. Designer bags became an important part of sustaining and growing the luxury market as eye-watering prices and luxury houses’ policies of scarcity stirred up a lust to belong. That has fallen off: indeed re-surfacing vintage luxe bags from the back of their boudoir has become a power move for the fashion set – think Carrie Bradshaw’s Fendi Baguettes from the 90s, or the 2000s megahits like the Chloe Paddington, the Dior Saddle bag or the Balenciaga City bag.
And yet, Birkins and their mythology have somehow endured through boom and bust market cycles. With this sale today, the purse-under-glass thing of recent years feels stale. Seeing the OG Jane Birkin “Birkin” brings to mind Courtney Love, who wrote “Giving Up” in white marker across a Birkin bag circa 2010 as a statement against consumerism. It also brings to mind the years the Olson twins used their Birkins and casual carry-alls the way Jane intended.
And about that nail file: It was left attached to the bag today at auction. As Sotheby’s said, “She was never one for long nails.” Another little sign that the era of the nouveau Birkin set is well and truly over – after all, they are the ones who favoured crazy, long and impractical talons.
Life is about living, not being decorative or showing off. It’s a sentiment that Jane Birkin exuded.
RELATED:
