Image source, Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
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- Author, Ian Youngs Y Laorglone Jordan
- Author's title, BBC News
The original Birkin bag, which laid the foundations of what is possibly the most coveted accessory in the history of fashion, sold this Thursday for 8.6 million euros (US $ 10.1 million), which became the most expensive bag ever sold in an auction.
The black leather bag was made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985, after her belongings were spread while sitting during a flight next to the luxurious fashion house Hermès.
She asked him why they did not make larger bags and he outlined the design of a new more practical, but equally desirable article, in the paper bag for the dizziness of the plane.
The prototype that created was sold this Thursday to a Japanese private collector at a Sotheby's auction in Paris for a price that far exceeded the previous record of 439,000 euros (US $ 513,000 dollars).
The auction house said there was an intense 10 -minute bid between “nine determined collectors.”
Morgane Halimi, Global Bags and Fashion Director of Sotheby's, said that the price is a “surprising demonstration of the power of a legend and its ability to awaken the passion and desire of collectors looking for exceptional items with a unique origin, to possess its origin.”
He added: “The Birkin prototype is exactly that, the starting point of an extraordinary story that has given us a modern icon, the Birkin, the most coveted bag in the world.”
The total of 8,582,500 euros includes commissions and fees. Sotheby's did not published an estimate prior to the auction.
Image source, GILLES LEIMDORFER/AFP via Getty Images
After creating the bag for the Anglo-French singer and actress, Hermès put it in commercial production and remains one of the most exclusive fashion status symbols.
Some models cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and among their owners are celebrities such as Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer López.
The original has some unique features, such as Jane Birkin's initials on the front flap, a non -removable shoulder strap, the clipper she kept in the belt and the marks where she hit cause stickers she supported, as doctors of the world and UNICEF.
Birkin, who died in 2023 at age 76, owned the original bag for a decade and donated it to an auction to raise funds for a beneficial organization against AIDS in 1994.
He was later bought by Catherine Benier, owner of a luxury boutique in Paris, who kept it for 25 years before selling it on Thursday.
Sotheby's said that the previous record for a bag was held by a Kelly Centourne 28 of the white nilotic crocodile of the Himalayas with diamonds, sold in 2021.
Image source, Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
An investment
Hermès's portfolios are not just a luxurious accessory. They are also an asset that can produce high yields.
Jefferies investment bank estimated that some portfolios can generate dividends of more or less 30% per year.
Rachel Koffsky, a portfolio and accessories specialist at the Christie's auction house, explains that the pieces of this legendary French house “have been made in the same way and with the same materials for decades, while other brands have been inconsistent during the last 100 years.”
His flagship, Birkin and Kelly portfolios have remained “virtually unchanged since they were designed” for the first time.
According to Koffsky, in the 90s, collectible portfolios were popularized (partly for the series Sex and the City), What opened this traditionally intimidating world to a broader clientele.
However, it is not a market that is open for everyone.
A new birkin can be sold from about US $ 10,000, but they are not easy to acquire. They are strictly reserved for Hermès's regular customers, who already have a relationship of trust with a seller, and not for the first.
In the second -hand market, “the least there are, the more a collector will want to pay for one of them,” explains Koffsky.
Therefore, certain limited editions that are created in small quantities, such as the Birkin Himalayas, exceed US $ 100,000.
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