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Archive3 October 2026

Jane Birkin's original Birkin bag: the flight beside Jean-Louis Dumas, the sick-bag sketch, the 1985 prototype with her initials and nail clipper, the 1994 charity sale

Hermès (@hermes) dates the flight to 1984 and others to 1981 or 1983, so the year stays off the slides. Birkin's bag carried stickers for Médecins du Monde and UNICEF, whose faint rings are still visible. Each Birkin is made by a single artisan. In 2015 she asked Hermès to take her name off the crocodile version over farming concerns; that September she said she was satisfied by the measures the house had taken, and the name stayed. Photos: Gorup de Besanez, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ohconfucius, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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The post, as it ran

01JANE BIRKIN'S OWN BIRKIN BAG, THE FIRST ONE, SOLD AT SOTHEBY'S IN PARIS ON 10 JULY 2025 FOR 8.58 MILLION EUROS WITH FEES, A RECORD FOR ANY HANDBAG.

02JANE BIRKIN IN 1984. THE BAG BEGAN ON A FLIGHT FROM PARIS TO LONDON, WITH JEAN-LOUIS DUMAS OF HERMÈS IN THE NEXT SEAT.

03SHE COMPLAINED, HERMÈS SAYS, THAT SHE COULD NOT FIND A BAG SUITED TO A YOUNG MOTHER.

04'I THINK I DREW IT ON THE SICK BAG,' SHE SAID LATER. 'AND HE SAID, I'LL MAKE IT FOR YOU.'

05HERMÈS PRESENTED HER WITH THE PROTOTYPE IN 1985. IT BEARS HER INITIALS, J.B., AND SHE HUNG A NAIL CLIPPER FROM THE STRAP.

06A BIRKIN IN CROCODILE. SHE GAVE HER OWN BAG TO A CHARITY AUCTION FOR AN AIDS CHARITY IN 1994, AND IT WAS SOLD AGAIN IN 2000.

07IN JULY 2025 NINE BIDDERS FOUGHT FOR TEN MINUTES. THE HAMMER FELL AT 7 MILLION EUROS. THE BUYER WAS THE JAPANESE COMPANY VALUENCE.

08BIRKIN DIED IN PARIS ON 16 JULY 2023, AGED 76.

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