Jane Birkin’s Birkin Sells for Over £100,000

Iconic Bag Auctioned Off In Aid of Red Cross Japan Relief

To any fashionista the story is a familiar one, on an Air France flight from Paris to London in 1984 songstress Jane Birkin finds herself sat next to Hermès chairman Jean-Louis Dumas. Reaching into her straw shopping bag the contents fall to the floor and she complains that she can never find a bag large enough to fit all her belongings.  Taking her complaints on board Dumas creates the Birkin bag naming it after the woman from whom he got the idea.

Today a Birkin bag will set you back anywhere in the region of $7000 - $15000 and as such are favourites of the rich and famous – Victoria Beckham reportedly owns over 100 of them! The lady who started it all, though, apparently only owned one and that bag has just been auctioned off on e-Bay in aid of Red Cross Japan Relief. Fetching over 100,000 GBP ($166,956.79) the bag was well loved and covered in beads and stickers, Birkin even told Vogue.com that the cat had probably been sitting on it and that it made a very good rain hat!

For more Hermes bags check out hermes.com.