Original Birkin bag sells for record $16m
The bag fetched $US10.04 million ($NZ16.7 million) last week, auctioneer Sotheby's said.
According to fashion lore, the first Birkin bag was born when the Franco-British actress and singer sat next to Hermes executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight in 1984 and told him she needed a stylish yet functional bag as a young mother.
Jane Birkin with her bag from Hermes. The bag is one of the most sought-after luxury items worldwide.
Dumas immediately sketched out the rectangular handbag, with a dedicated space for baby bottles.
The company made that one for her, then started selling smaller versions to the public. The design became a hit and has helped fuel the growth of the fashion brand.
Regular Birkin bags sell for more than $US10,000 ($NZ16,700).
The first one - which has Birkin's J. B. initials on the flap and, unlike its descendants, has a strap that cannot be removed - was bought by a private Japanese buyer over the phone, Sotheby's said.
The price was the highest on record for a fashion item, it added.
"It was a travel bag. Clearly, it was worn for nine years by Jane Birkin on a daily basis and the form is still very beautiful," Aurelie Vassy, head of the Handbags and Fashion Department at Sotheby's Europe and Middle East, told Reuters.
The Birkin was bought by a private Japanese buyer. Photo: Reuters
Birkin auctioned the bag in 1994 to support Sidaction, a French charity that fights HIV/AIDS.
In 2000, when it went on sale again, a private French collector bought it.
When British-born Birkin died in 2023, the French capital's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said the "most Parisian of the English has left us".
Birkin had lived in her adopted France since the late 1960s and was remembered as much for her warmth and campaigning as for her acting and singing, most famously on the hit single Je t'aime... moi non plus.
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