(FILES) (COMBO) This mixture of images created on July 09, 2025 exhibits the “Birkin” bag by Hermes which belonged to British-French actress and singer Jane Birkin on the Sotheby’s public sale home in Paris on July 2, 2025 and which will probably be auctioned by Sotheby’s as a part of the Vogue Icons public sale sale. (R) French actress and singer Jane Birkin arrive on the Elysee Palace the place she is acquired by the President of the Republic Francois Mitterrand earlier than the forty third Cannes Movie Pageant, on Might 9, 1990. | Picture by ALAIN JOCARD and Gilles LEIMDORFER / AFP
PARIS, France — The primary-ever Birkin bag designed by French luxurious model Hermes for movie star Jane Birkin offered for 8.58 million euros ($10 million) at a Sotheby’s public sale in Paris on Thursday, smashing earlier value data for a purse.
The fashionable design basic, owned by a Paris-based purse collector, sparked a phone bidding battle as much as seven million euros, with the ultimate sale value set at 8.58 million with fee and costs, the Sotheby’s web site confirmed.
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“After weeks of anticipation, the bidding opened at 1 million euros — prompting a puff from the room,” Sotheby’s mentioned in an announcement.
The ultimate purchaser, who eclipsed eight different rivals, was a “non-public collector from Japan”, the public sale home added, with out giving additional particulars.
The earlier file value for a purse at public sale was set by a diamond-encrusted crocodile pores and skin Hermes Kelly 28, which fetched $513,000 in 2021 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.
Sotheby’s had suggested that the Birkin prototype was anticipated to beat that stage throughout its sale.
However the staggering price ticket for a well-worn merchandise is consistent with the style world’s latest flashy aesthetics.
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After years of so-called “quiet luxurious” dominating catwalks, designers have embraced extra ostentatious seems to be in latest seasons which were dubbed “growth growth” by some pattern forecasters.
Fashionable-day Birkin baggage are supplied by Hermes to loyal purchasers, with costs beginning at round $10,000.
‘Nostalgic’
The unique Birkin has modified arms twice since being put up on the market by Birkin at an public sale in 1994 the place the proceeds went to an AIDS charity, in response to Sotheby’s.
Thursday’s sale represents a unprecedented pay day for proprietor Catherine Benier, who has a boutique within the upmarket sixth district in Left Financial institution Paris.
She mentioned she was “astonished on the outcome” in an announcement despatched by Sotheby’s.
“I’m already very nostalgic on the considered realizing the bag is not mine however extraordinarily completely satisfied it has discovered a brand new loving residence,” she added.
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She instructed The New York Instances earlier than the sale that the bag, which she purchased at public sale 25 years in the past, was the “jewel in my assortment”.
The bag is now the second-most costly vogue merchandise ever offered at public sale, Sotheby’s mentioned.
The file was established by a pair of ruby purple slippers worn by actor Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz in 1939, which offered for $32.5 million in 2024 in Dallas, Texas.
‘A few years of use’
The delivery of the Birkin bag has grow to be a contemporary vogue legend.
Throughout a Paris-London flight, the singer and movie star — who died in 2023 — complained to fellow traveller Jean-Louis Dumas, then head of Hermes, about not with the ability to discover a bag suited to her wants as a younger mom.
The results of their dialog was a spacious tote with room for child bottles, created in 1984 and named the Birkin.
The protoype, which Birkin usually carried together with her and customised with stickers, is engraved with the initials J.B. and has a number of distinctive options, together with closed metallic rings, a non-detachable shoulder strap and a built-in nail clipper.
Its situation “displays the numerous years of use by the actress and singer”, Sotheby’s mentioned beforehand.
A barely in a different way sized model of the unique has grow to be the flagship product of the immensely worthwhile family-owned Hermes ever since.
Produced in very restricted numbers, the bag has maintained an aura of exclusivity and is beloved by celebrities from the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez to Victoria Beckham.
Annoyed fashionistas in America even sued Hermes in a class-action go well with in California final yr after they have been refused entry to the luggage.
Birkin had a generally strained relationship with Hermes, as soon as threatening to take her title off the luggage due to the group’s remedy of crocodiles whose skins are used for its merchandise.
The previous spouse of French singing legend Serge Gainsbourg championed a number of causes, together with animal rights.
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