The Hermes Birkin Bag

The History of the Birkin Bag

Jane Birkin talks to Luke Leitch from The Dily Telegraph about how a chance encounter with the chief executive of Hermès on a flight led to the birth of the Birkin bag.
She said: "I remember it well. I'd been upgraded by Air France on a flight to London, and was sitting next to a man. I'm not quite sure what type of bag I had with me - my husband, Jacques Doillon, had reversed his car over my basket, crushed it on purpose not two days before. Little did he know that on this airplane journey, when everything fell out of whatever bag I had, the man next to me said: 'You should have one with pockets'. I said: 'The day Hermès make one with pockets I will have that', and he said: 'But I am Hermès and I will put pockets in for you'."
Her fellow passenger was in fact Jean-Louis Dumas, the chief executive of Hermès. Together they began designing. "I said, 'Why don't you make a handbag that is bigger than the Kelly but smaller than Serge's suitcase?'. And he said, 'Well, what would it be like?' And I think I drew it on the sickbag - or the not-be-sick bag. And he said, 'I'll make it for you'."
When Birkin "bowled along" with her purse to the atelier to purchase the result of their in-flight collaboration, Dumas proposed that he give Birkin the bag in exchange for her lending her surname to christen the design. She said: "I was very flattered! They've turned it to the success we know today. So now, when I go to America to sing, they say, 'Birkin - like the bag?' I say, 'Yes, indeed: and the bag will now sing'."
Hermès still gives money - £30,000 this year - as a form of royalty for Birkin to then donate to charities of her choice. Her only complaint is the heaviness of her own bag (she's due an operation next month to alleviate tendonitis in her right arm) and said: "I'm going to have to ask them to make it in a frivolous light material."
Owning a Birkin tells the world “Look-at-me, I’ve made it big.” It’s the ultimate elite status symbol, as Hermès is one of the world's top handbag brands, with its famous Birkin and Kelly.
With the price tag of a Birkin starting around $7,000, only the rich (and famous?) can afford to carry one on their arm. Even the wealthiest women must wait for an exquisitely stitched Hermès Birkin bag, so to own one screams exclusivity. Prices of the standard 35cm Birkin range from around £5.000 - £20 ,000, depending on the leather or exotic skin, with a price tag far higher for a special edition.