Archive · 10 Aug 2026
Jane Birkin's everyday basket bag becomes $10.1 million luxury icon
A long time ago, a woman named Jane Birkin liked to carry a basket instead of a fancy handbag.
One day on an airplane, her basket tipped over and everything spilled onto the man sitting next to her.
That man was the head of a famous French company called Hermès that makes luxury bags.
Jane said she wished there was a bigger bag, so she drew her idea on a paper bag used for motion sickness.
The company made the bag for her, and she used it almost every day for years, adding stickers, beads and scratches.
That same bag, called the Birkin, later became one of the most famous handbags in the world.
When Jane wanted to help charity, she gave the original bag away to raise money.
In 2025, that original bag was sold at an auction in Paris for about $10.1 million, a new record for a handbag.
Birkins today can cost more than $200,000, but the bag was first made to be carried around, not locked away.
Jane Birkin died in 2023, but her simple idea became a famous piece of fashion history.
The Birkin bag was born during an Air France flight when Jane Birkin's basket spilled its contents onto Jean-Louis Dumas, then head of Hermès, and she sketched her idea on an air sickness bag.
The original prototype sold at Sotheby's in Paris on 10 July 2025 for €8.6 million, about $10.1 million with fees, setting a new record for a handbag.
Birkin carried the original bag almost every day from 1985 to 1994, covering it with stickers for Médecins du Monde and UNICEF, beads, and scuffs.
Another personal bag, Le Birkin Voyageur, which Birkin carried daily between 2003 and 2007, sold in Abu Dhabi in December for $2.9 million.
The 2025 sale broke the previous handbag record of $513,040 paid in 2021 for a diamond-set crocodile Kelly, with only The Wizard of Oz ruby slippers fetching more as fashion at auction.
Bidding opened at €1 million and the hammer fell at €7 million after ten minutes of bidding from nine collectors, with the buyer a private collector in Japan.
- Who
- Jane Birkin, the bag's namesake; Jean-Louis Dumas, the Hermès chief who commissioned the design; and a private collector in Japan who bought the prototype at auction.
- What
- The original Birkin handbag prototype sold at auction for €8.6 million (about $10.1 million with fees), a record price for a handbag.
- When
- 10 July 2025, at auction in Paris; the bag was created in the 1980s after an Air France flight.
- Where
- Sotheby's in Paris, France; another of Birkin's personal bags sold in Abu Dhabi.
- Why
- The one-of-a-kind prototype is a rare collectible with a direct connection to Jane Birkin, making it highly valuable as a luxury asset.
- Final auction price
- €8.6 million (about $10.1 million with fees)
- Hammer price
- €7 million after 10 minutes of bidding from nine collectors
- Auction details
- Sotheby's, Paris, 10 July 2025
- Buyer
- A private collector in Japan
- Previous handbag record
- $513,040 paid in 2021 for a diamond-set crocodile Kelly
- Prototype origin
- Sketched on an air sickness bag during an Air France flight
- Retail Birkin prices
- From about $10,000 at retail; up to $220,000 via Sotheby's resale
- Jane Birkin
- Died July 2023 aged 76; donated the original bag in 1994 to an AIDS charity