Jane Birkin’s original Hermès handbag sells for record €8.6m at Paris auction | Accessories

A novel if well-worn purse created for the singer and actor Jane Birkin by Hermès has been offered in Paris for €8.6m (£7.4m), making it the costliest trend accent ever offered at public sale in Europe.The unique battered Birkin bag was utilized by France’s favorite “petite Anglaise” for 9 years and nonetheless bears traces of the stickers she placed on its black leather-based.Jane Birkin together with her bag at a celebration in London in 1994. {Photograph}: Richard Younger/ShutterstockThe prototype of the bag by the French luxurious items agency had been anticipated to fetch a six-figure sum. Within the occasion, bidding opened at Sotheby’s at €1m, drawing gasps from the room, and rose swiftly throughout a 10-minute battle between 9 collectors, some bidding by cellphone and on-line.The winner was a personal collector from Japan, Sotheby’s mentioned on Thursday, including that the “extraordinary” worth made the purse the world’s second-most worthwhile trend merchandise offered at public sale, and probably the most worthwhile in Europe.Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s world head of purses and trend, mentioned the sale was a “startling demonstration of the ability of a legend and its capability to ignite the fervour and want of collectors looking for distinctive objects with distinctive provenance”.The Birkin prototype was “the place to begin of a rare story that has given us a contemporary icon, the Birkin bag, probably the most coveted purse on this planet”, Halimi added, and “a celebration of the enduring spirit and attraction of its muse, Jane Birkin”, who died in 2023.The bag’s final proprietor, who was named as Catherine B and has not disclosed what she paid for it, mentioned she was astonished by the outcome but additionally “profoundly moved by the way in which others have invested a lot fervour attempting to amass what they desired past phrases”.The unique Birkin Bag that offered for €8.6m. {Photograph}: Sotheby’s/PALe Birkin, which sells for 1000’s new and for a whole lot of 1000’s secondhand, took place after an opportunity airborne encounter between Birkin, finest recognized exterior France for the erotic hit track Je T’aime Moi Non Plus, and the pinnacle of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas.The British-born singer and actor, who appeared in about 70 movies and for greater than a decade shaped half of France’s most feted movie star couple with the singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, advised Dumas she couldn’t discover a bag sufficiently big for her wants.The prototype is embossed with the initials JB. It’s a totally different measurement to later manufacturing fashions, has a shoulder strap and options brass {hardware}, later changed with gold-plate rings, clasps and “toes”.The world file for a trend accent offered at public sale is $32.5m (£24m), paid in 2024 for a pair of ruby pink slippers worn within the The Wizard of Oz.