How many Hermès Birkins does Jane Birkin have? The exclusive bag goes for thousands on the second-hand market, but the star – who the fashion item is named for – puts stickers on hers

Mar 30 , 2022

A chance meeting aboard an aeroplane led to the creation of one of the most sought-after luxury accessories, the Hermès Birkin handbag, and this matt white Birkin Himalaya 35 is a still-rarer edition. Photo: Reuters

In 1984, Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas found himself seated on a flight next to British actress and singer Jane Birkin. Observing her struggling to prevent her personal effects from overflowing out of an Hermès Kelly bag – a piece popularised by, then named after, no less than Princess Grace of Monaco – Dumas asked Birkin if he could do anything to help.

The Kelly was simply too small, she informed the Hermès boss. Her perfect everyday carry-all would be roughly four times its size, with a top that could be left open to accommodate bulky objects. Dumas suggested Birkin sketch out her vision – which she promptly did, on the back of a sick bag.

Jane Birkin is the namesake and inspiration behind arguably the world’s most collectable handbag. Photo: Handout

Returning to Hermès’ Paris atelier, Dumas handed his artisans Birkin’s sketch and instructed them to make the actress’s dream accessory a reality. The skilled leather workers crafted something reminiscent of a classic Hermès Haut à Courroies – a leather and canvas bag first created in the early 1900s to transport saddles and riding boots – all in leather, but in a more manageable size.

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Catherine B. with the original Birkin bag once owned by actress Jane Birkin. Photo: Handout

Capacious enough to carry everything she could need, stylish enough to look chic in the most refined of settings, yet sufficiently supple to maintain a casual air, this Hermès novelty fulfilled Birkin’s desire for a single bag she could always simply grab and go, anywhere, anytime. She said she hated moving her belongings from one bag to another and the Hermès solved that problem: you can leave everything you might need in it and use it every single day.

Unlike the super-wealthy collectors who hoard dozens of these pricey accessories, Birkin, now 75, has apparently only owned five or six since that fateful meeting with Dumas in 1984. She uses just one at a time, generally donating a well-used example – complete with stickers even – to charity for auction before replacing it.

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An employee holding a US$129,000 crocodile-skin Hermès Birkin bag for the press to see, during a private opening for the new Hermès store on Wall Street, New York, in 2007. Photo: AFP

As rare and expensive as a Birkin may be – typically commanding upwards of US$12,780 (HK$100,000) on the resale market – in her opinion these are not objects to be kept on a shelf and handled with a gallerist’s white gloves. Birkin believes an Hermès bag gets more beautiful with age and use. “There’s no fun in a bag if it’s not kicked around, so that it looks as if the cat’s been sitting on it,” she told an interviewer. In her case, she said, “It usually has. The cat may even be in it! I always put on stickers and beads and worry beads.”

Atypical as this is in the world of luxury handbags, it hasn’t stopped the tote from becoming the most coveted handbag anywhere, as well as the hottest collectible at auction houses.

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Celebrity style

The Birkin was famously created after Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas bumped into Jane Birkin, who at the time was using a Kelly bag she thought was too small
Millionaires and celebrities hoard dozens of the expensive bags, but its namesake has only ever owned five or six, just using one at a time – and donating it to charity before replacing it