The Birkin bag

– a timeless design with a rich history

The Hermès Birkin bag’s beginnings are legendary in the world of fashion. When Jane Birkin, a British actress living in Paris at the time, unexpectedly obtained an upgrade on her Air France flight in 1981, Jean-Louise Dumas, the company’s Chief Executive, sat next to her. There are numerous versions of this tale, but they all center on Jane Birkin’s bag’s contents, including her Hermès diary, pouring out into the ground.

Dumas graciously advised her to look for a bag with pockets in response to the incident, which led Birkin to claim that she would give up her signature basket bag the moment Hermès created a large bag suitable for carrying all of a woman’s possessions. The two worked together to create a sketch for the now-iconic Birkin bag, which Hermès introduced in 1984, as soon as Dumas grabbed a pencil and a sick aircraft bag.

Although the Birkin bag has held the title of Queen of Handbags for a while, it wasn’t always an instant hit. The bag didn’t start to develop a reputation as a stylish, affluent status symbol until the late 1990s. Today the desirable bag is synonymous with style, good taste and unobtainable luxury. Depending on the material you are set to queue several years on the waiting list (or should we say wish list?) to acquire a bag. But if you bid on a Birkin at auction, you will not only skip the line, but you will also get the possibility to purchase one for a lower price. The price tag for a brand new bag in a Hermès store starts at 100 000 SEK and can achieve monstrous sums depending on the execution.

In Bukowskis’ ongoing Online only auction Travel in Style, you can now acquire several of the chic accessory.