A rain hat, a flight cushion and a bed for her cat. . . Jane Birkin had many uses for the handbag that bears her name, but carrying it on her arm wasn’t high on the list.
The British-French actress, who died last week at her home in Paris aged 76, famously inspired one-time Hermès president Jean-Louis Dumas to create the luxury brand’s iconic – and highly coveted – bag after a chance encounter on a plane in the early ’80s.
As she recalled: ‘When everything fell out of whatever bag I had, the guy next to me said, ‘You should have one with your pocket.’
‘I said, ‘The day Hermes makes one with pockets, I’ll have it.’
‘And he said, ‘But I am Hermes, and I will keep the pocket for you.’
Jane sketched the bag she had in mind on a sick bag, handed it to her travel companion – and the rest is history.
Over the next four decades, the Hermès Birkin would become the world’s most coveted fashion accessory, with waiting lists of up to six years for some styles — the ‘Himalaya’, made from albino blue crocodile skin, being the most prized — with buyers willing to pay more than £300,000 to get their hands on it.
The British-French actress, who died last week at her home in Paris aged 76, famously inspired one-time Hermès president Jean-Louis Dumas to create the luxury brand’s iconic – and highly coveted – bag after a chance encounter on a plane in the early ’80s.
Jane herself did not hold bags in such high regard. In fact the star once owned a Birkin, using it almost to the point of ruin before selling it for charity.
‘One is already enough,’ he told Vogue in 2011. It will take the same aircraft and be similarly squashed and used as cushions at airports.’
The actress and singer kept her essentials – diary, phone, photos of her three daughters and make-up – in her Birkin, but admitted she had to stop carrying ‘that trivial piece of heavy luggage’ in her later years as it contributed to her tendonitis.
He also admitted to using the bag as an umbrella, sleeping on it at the airport – and even giving his cat free rein to play inside.
Jane alone owned — and later sold — five Birkins, all in plain black leather and personalized with stickers, thought beads, keys, luggage tags, bracelets and a miniature harmonica dangling from its handle.
‘She was bohemian,’ says Hermès expert Michael Tonello, author of Bringing Home the Birkin and founder of smart fashion retailer Respoque. ‘He didn’t care much for luxuries.’
Although somewhat distressed, Jane’s bags fetched a fortune at auction — and each one could now fetch a hefty price.
Jane Birkin attends the ‘Jane Birkin Serge Gainsbourg ‘Va Japan’ press conference at Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo on March 26, 2013 in Tokyo.
Michael says, ‘One of Jane’s original bags can fetch in the region of £500,000 – if not more’. ‘You will own a large piece of luxury fashion history.’
So where are the original Birkins today? SARAH RAINEY tracks down the most sought-after handbags of all time
Original – and an owner who turned down a pop star
After her mid-air conversation with Dumas, Jane popped into the Hermès atelier in Paris sometime in 1984 to buy the bag she helped design.
In lieu of payment, Dumas suggested that he lend his title to the bag. They also agreed an annual royalty – around £42,000 in today’s money – which he gave to charity.
The original ‘It’ bag – a copy of which cost £1,500 (£4,800 in today’s money) – lasted Jane for ten years. When a replacement was needed, Jane sold it to an anonymous buyer at auction in 1994 to support the fight against AIDS.
Six years later it’s back on the market, thanks to Catherine Benier, collector of vintage Hermès and Chanel accessories and owner of the exclusive vintage fashion boutique Les Trois Marches de Catherine B, who previously barely missed the bag.
Catherine, an elegant, flame-haired Frenchwoman too chic to belie her age, counts model Linda Evangelista, pop stars Rihanna and Dumas among her customers and boasts some of the world’s rarest designer bags and 2,500 silk scarves.
Speaking to the Mail this week, he revealed he was alerted to the sale by a friend at a Paris auction house. ‘When I go for a walk, he pulls a bag out of a safe. It’s one I’ve seen a thousand times in photos of Jane Birkin’s hands. I said, ‘It can’t possibly be the bag.’
‘I could not imagine that this wonderful object was not mine.’
Jane sketched the bag in her mind on a sick bag, handed it to her travel companion – and the rest is history.
Keen to keep his name confidential, he bids on the phone. ‘I was not present in the room. Only the auctioneer knew my name. Apart from the director of the museum, many famous people were present there. No one knew I was the lucky winner. The joy I got from hammering is indescribable.’
Externally, the bag is unremarkable: white black leather, embossed with the initials ‘JB’ on the front, it has a gold clasp and bears the remnants of the Unicef and Médecins du Monde stickers stuck to the front and sides of Jane. Unlike the later version, it has a shoulder strap.
Catherine won’t reveal how much she paid (thought to be well into six figures), saying simply: ‘This bag is an icon. Does the icon have a price?’
He also won’t say where it is today, just that it’s kept safe under lock and key.
She would never use it as a handbag or part with it, despite repeated requests (amounts of tears involved). He even turned down an offer from Rihanna. ‘I envision the bag, the trip and the experience of the places visited. I breathe in an almost imperceptible scent of perfume on it. I enjoy imagining these wonderful stories.
‘When you buy a bag like this, you buy the whole story behind it.’
Recalling the few times she met Jane Birkin in the chic Parisian neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Catherine said: ‘She was down to earth and incredibly kind. Our exchanges were always sweet and polite.’
Jane Birkin arrives at Narita International Airport in Japan on April 5, 2011
The bag has since been displayed in department stores and museums in London, Paris and New York.
Covered in stickers, the bag went for £104,00 on eBay
A decade later, in 2011, another of Jane’s distressed black leather Birkins was posted on the online auction site eBay as part of a charity event to raise money for Red Cross disaster relief in Japan.
Used in the name Everyday for more than five years, the bag has all the hallmarks of a well-loved (and well-traveled) accessory: a sticker from a concert he sang for earthquake survivors in Haiti; A portrait of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her time; Think beads, friendship bracelets and metal trinkets from his globe-trotting adventures.
Jane said of the eclectic adornment: ‘I always hang things on my bag because I don’t like them looking like everyone else.’
The hardware was tarnished and the leather faded, but within minutes of going online, the bag – in an auction with items from Katy Perry and Coldplay – attracted bids of more than £1,500.
Selling for £104,164 to an anonymous bidder – the highest lot in the entire A-list auction – it has not been seen since.
Six years later it’s back on the market, thanks to Catherine Benier, collector of vintage Hermès and Chanel accessories and owner of the exclusive vintage fashion boutique Les Trois Marches de Catherine B, who previously barely missed the bag.
Five least used and one charity auction
Unlike her other distressed offerings, Jane’s third bag, which went on sale in 2020, looked pristine. He doesn’t like to break into a new Birkin. In his words: ‘It’s not dirty enough, and it doesn’t even have a sticker. The surface will soon be scratched about.’
In this case, his Birkin wasn’t nearly as scratched as the others.
The leather was supple and shiny, the lining was soft, and included a dustbag, rain protector, ribbon and box with rose gold lock and key.
The 35cm black ‘Togo’ Birkin was sold as part of a sale by SmartWorks, a charity which helps unemployed women into work, with donations from Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue and Dame Shirley Bassey, as well as Meghan Markle being a patron.
As before, it fetched more than any other item, bagged by a private bidder for £35,000, three times the estimate. Jane promised to sign it after the sale.
His cat bite marks and a tip-ex autograph
Perhaps the final original Birkin – and certainly the most expensive – went under the hammer at London auctioneer Bonhams just two years ago.
The bag — a black leather Togo 35 made in 1999 — was sold by Jane herself to an anonymous bidder in a 2014 auction for Anno’s Africa, a charity set up in memory of her late nephew, and displayed by its second owner in Shanghai two years later (alongside Grace Kelly’s Hermès bag).
The version that appeared in 2021 still had a piece of red cord tied around a handle, as well as a bite mark from Jane’s cat. Jane was unapologetic about her pet’s fondness for handbags. ‘There’s no fun in a bag without kicking it around, so it looks like the cat is sitting – and it usually is,’ he said in an interview. ‘The cat might as well be in it!’
The body of Jane Birkin (pictured in December last year) was found by a carer in her Paris home on Sunday, after she had expressed her desire to spend Saturday night alone.
This particular model was accompanied by a letter from Jane and autographed — in Tip-X — by her inside. It sparked a fierce two-way bidding war at the Knightsbridge auction room, which erupted into applause when it sold for £119,000, five times its pre-sale estimate.
Again the owner remains anonymous. And since then the bag has not surfaced.
The mysterious fifth bag.. and others can be left to his will?
With the exception of Catherine, the original Birkin owners have kept their identities secret. Given the value of the bags, it’s no surprise that collectors do, says Michael Tonello.
‘People are concerned about their personal safety,’ he says. ‘We’ve seen in the news over the years thieves breaking into cars in front of Hermès stores with designer goods.’
He believes it’s unlikely the bags are being used by their owners: ‘They’ll be sitting inside a glass cube on display like art in the owners’ homes.’
A similar fate seems likely for a mysterious fifth bag that Jane revealed on Japanese TV in 2008 that she sold for victims of the 1999 Taiwan earthquake. The auction, which is believed to have taken place in Asia, has never been publicized and the buyer is confidential.
This raises the intriguing possibility that he may have more bags than he has – and may even give a bag or two to family or include others in his will.
Jane appeared to dismiss it in 2011: ‘My daughter Lou doesn’t have one. Personally, I think getting a Birkin bag from your mother would be a horrible thing.’
Many, however, will disagree.
And with their name no longer with us, the value of original Birkins is at an all-time high: so if you’ve got one of your own, now’s the time to sell, sell, sell.
Michael said: ‘I would trade anything I own for one of Jane’s genuine Birkin bags. And so, we wait and see. . .’