Tradition reporter
Getty PhotographsThe unique Birkin bag, which set the template for arguably probably the most coveted accent in model historical past, has been purchased for €8.6m (£7.4m; $10.1m), changing into probably the most precious purse ever offered at public sale.
The black leather-based bag was once made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her property whilst sitting subsequent to the boss of luxurious model area Hermès on a flight.
She requested why they did not make larger baggage, so he sketched out the design for a brand new, simpler however nonetheless extremely fascinating merchandise at the aeroplane’s unwell bag.
The prototype he made was once offered to a non-public collector from Japan at Sotheby’s in Paris on Thursday, some distance surpassing the $513,000 (£378,000; €439,000) earlier document sale.
Getty PhotographsThe public sale area mentioned there was once an “electrifying” 10-minute bidding warfare between “9 decided creditors”.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s world head of purses and model, mentioned the associated fee was once a “startling demonstration of the facility of a legend and its capability to ignite the eagerness and need of creditors searching for remarkable pieces with distinctive provenance, to possess its beginning”.
She added: “The Birkin prototype is precisely that, the place to begin of an atypical tale that has given us a contemporary icon, the Birkin bag, probably the most coveted purse on the planet.”
The €8,582,500 overall contains fee and costs. Sotheby’s didn’t put up a pre-auction estimate.
After growing the bag for the Anglo-French singer and actress, Hermès put the bag into business manufacturing, and it stays probably the most unique standing symbols in model.
Some types price many tens of hundreds of bucks and feature ready lists of years, with house owners together with celebrities like Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.
The unique has some distinctive options, reminiscent of Birkin’s initials at the entrance flap, a non-removable shoulder strap, the nail clippers she stored connected to the strap, and marks the place she put stickers for reasons she supported, reminiscent of Médecins du Monde and Unicef.
Birkin, who died in 2023 on the age of 76, owned the unique bag for a decade and donated it to an public sale to boost budget for an Aids charity in 1994.
It was once later purchased by means of Catherine Benier, who has a luxurious boutique in Paris, who owned it for 25 years ahead of promoting it on Thursday.
Sotheby’s mentioned the former document worth for a purse was once set by means of a White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28 in 2021.
