The original Hermès prototype for Jane Birkin’s iconic bag will be sold at auction this summer. There is no estimate for how high the bidding may go.
It’s nearly impossible to walk inside an Hermès store and come home with a new Birkin bag. But if you wanted to get your hands on the original Birkin bag — the prototype made for the actress Jane Birkin — it is going up for auction. It will be sold as part of a Paris Fashion Icons sale, which Sotheby’s is holding on July 10.
The bag will be on view at Sotheby’s in Manhattan from June 6-10 and then transported — representatives would not say how, citing security concerns — to Sotheby’s Galleries in Paris, where it will be on view from July 3-9.
There is no public estimate for how much the bag might fetch.
“At this stage we will communicate it privately to potential bidders,” said Morgane Halimi, the global head of handbags and fashion for Sotheby’s. “Obviously it is a one-of-a-kind piece, completely apart from any other handbag, or any other Birkin. We are breaking records with Birkin bags on a regular basis at auction. We foresee it to be as unique as the Diana jumper or a worn jersey from the N.B.A. It has value because of what it is and what has happened because of that bag.”
This is the original bag made in 1984 for Ms. Birkin, who was an icon of French cinema. The story behind the bag has become something of a fashion legend. Ms. Birkin was on an Air France flight to London from Paris and had been upgraded to first class. The basket bag she carried, her signature for decades, was in poor shape. As she boarded the plane, the contents started to spill out: wallet, keys, business cards, diapers, cigarettes, glasses.
Her seatmate happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, then the chief executive of Hermès, the luxury house founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. Ms. Birkin and Mr. Dumas talked about how she needed a bag that could fit all of her necessities and they began to sketch out an idea on an airsickness bag. Their concept had two handles like a tote, and somewhat resembled a shrunken version of the Haut à Courroies luggage that Hermès made. Her custom bag became the prototype of the Birkin, which was named after her.