In a world where trends fade overnight and luxury goods lose their shine, one handbag has managed to defy the rules of fashion economics.
The Hermès Birkin straddles the line between luxury and investment, prized as much for its financial value as for its iconic design.
Named for the actress Jane Birkin, the bag carries the same air of effortless elegance, its mix of function and glamour making it as desirable today as when it first appeared in the 1980s.
“She had a wild and wonderful career and is definitely worth knowing about,” explained Marisa Meltzer, author of the new book “It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin.”
The Birkin has joined the ranks of gold, art, and real estate as a place to park wealth.
“It’s something that doesn’t lose its value the way most fashion items do. Like driving a new car off the lot and instantly losing half its value,” Meltzer said.
“It’s more like real estate or gold in that sense and I think that right now people are interested in hard goods as investments,” she added.
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That exclusivity comes at a steep price. “I think it would be hard in America to spend less than about $15,000,” Meltzer said.
The original Birkin was created for Jane Birkin after a chance encounter with a Hermès executive on a flight in the early 1980s, where she complained she couldn’t find a bag that suited her needs. Her long use of the bag only added to its allure, helping it fetch a record $10.1 million at auction this past summer.
“There’s this mystique to Hermès,” said Meltzer, noting that the process of buying one of the brand’s most coveted handbags is “deliberately confusing and mysterious.”
“There are no easy shortcuts,” she added. “People can try to buy a bag online that looks like a Birkin, or choose another designer’s version that seems suspiciously similar, but there’s no real substitute for the real thing.”
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That authenticity, Meltzer explained, is part of what fuels the staggering resale market. “The resale value, though not something Hermès would necessarily encourage, makes these bags true investments, if you’re able to get one.”
Meltzer’s forthcoming book, out Oct. 7, delves into the muse that inspired the world’s most desired handbag.
As she describes in her book, the story of the Birkin bag’s creation plays out like a scene from a romantic comedy. Jane Birkin, the English-born actress and singer who lived in France, was on a flight from London to Paris in the mid-1980s.
Known for carrying wicker baskets as handbags, she was struggling to keep her belongings from spilling out while trying to stuff one into the overhead bin.
“Her seatmate on the flight says something like, ‘you know, you should think about getting a bag with at least pockets or a zipper or something,’” Meltzer explained.
Birkin reportedly quipped, “When Hermès makes a bag with pockets and a zipper, I’ll use it.” The man replied, “But I am Hermès.”
Meltzer explains that the man seated next to Birkin was Jean-Louis Dumas of the Hermès family, then the head of the brand.
“So they took out the only paper they could find, which was an air sickness bag, and she started drawing what her ideal bag would look like. At the time, it was the mid 80s, and she had a baby, so her design was kind of like a glorified diaper bag,” Meltzer explained.
Et voilà, the Birkin was born.
