A unique if well-worn handbag created for the singer and actor Jane Birkin by Hermès has been sold in Paris for €8.6m (£7.4m), making it the most expensive fashion accessory ever sold at auction in Europe.
The original battered Birkin bag was used by France’s favourite “petite Anglaise” for nine years and still bears traces of the stickers she put on its black leather.
The prototype of the bag by the French luxury goods firm had been expected to fetch a six-figure sum. In the event, bidding opened at Sotheby’s at €1m, drawing gasps from the room, and rose swiftly during a 10-minute battle between nine collectors, some bidding by phone and online.
The winner was a private collector from Japan, Sotheby’s said on Thursday, adding that the “extraordinary” price made the handbag the world’s second-most valuable fashion item sold at auction, and the most valuable in Europe.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said the sale was a “startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance”.
The Birkin prototype was “the starting point of an extraordinary story that has given us a modern icon, the Birkin bag, the most coveted handbag in the world”, Halimi added, and “a celebration of the enduring spirit and appeal of its muse, Jane Birkin”, who died in 2023.
The bag’s last owner, who was named as Catherine B and has not disclosed what she paid for it, said she was astonished by the result but also “profoundly moved by the way others have invested so much fervour trying to acquire what they desired beyond words”.
Le Birkin, which sells for thousands new and for hundreds of thousands secondhand, came about after a chance airborne encounter between Birkin, best known outside France for the erotic hit song Je T’aime Moi Non Plus, and the head of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas.
The British-born singer and actor, who appeared in about 70 films and for more than a decade formed half of France’s most feted celebrity couple with the singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, told Dumas she couldn’t find a bag big enough for her needs.
The prototype is embossed with the initials JB. It is a different size to later production models, has a shoulder strap and features brass hardware, later replaced with gold-plate rings, clasps and “feet”.
The world record for a fashion accessory sold at auction is $32.5m (£24m), paid in 2024 for a pair of ruby red slippers worn in the The Wizard of Oz.