When visiting a Hermès boutique, the first order of business is always to look at the bags, particularly the iconic Birkin bag.
This season, as a part of their Spring/Summer 2024 Objects collection, Hermès released the “Birkin Sellier Faubourg en fête Bag.” According to L’Officiel, the accessory is intended to channel the 1950s trompe-l'œil dress.
According to the same article from L’Officiel, the bag is made entirely of Evercalf calfskin, a male calf leather known for its velvety finish, and is hand-painted using gouache paint that is almost entirely resistant to fading when in direct sunlight.
But when did the Birkin bag become one of the fashion’s most iconic accessories?
History
According to The Hermès website the Birkin bag was born on a 1984 non-stop flight from Paris to London.
British actress Jane Birkin struggled her way through the cramped airplane cabin, finding her seat directly beside Jean-Louis Dumas, the then-executive chairman of Hermès.
According to an article from Madison Avenue Couture, it was during this time that Birkin, who was a mother of three, was often photographed using a large straw basket as a purse. The straw basket soon became her signature bag. Unfortunately for Birkin, a straw-wicker basket tended to do quite poorly on airplanes.
As she picked her way to her seat, Birkin reached up to place the basket in the overhead compartment. But, just as she placed it overhead, the basket came tumbling down and her numerous belongings spilled across the aisle, including an Hermès notebook. She laughed it off and her seatmate, Dumas, joked that she needed a handbag with pockets. Birkin agreed, letting Dumas know that the day Hermès released a large bag with pockets she would give up her signature straw basket in a heartbeat.
As Birkin and Dumas continued to chat on the plane, the Birkin was born. In fact, according to CNN, the earliest sketches were done on the back of airplane sick bags on that very flight.
However, the Birkin bag was not an instant hit.
At the time, Chanel bags were all the rage making it difficult for the Birkin bag to break into the well-established market.
This all changed by the 1990s.
According to an article from Harper’s Bazaar, throughout the 90s more and more people were finding and falling in love with the useful and stylish Birkin bag which, unlike the popular Chanel bags, were quietly luxurious and devoid of loud prints and flashy logos.
According to Madison Avenue Couture, it was in 2001, when Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones from “Sex In the City” said the iconic line, “It’s not a bag -- it's a Birkin!” leading the bag to take off.
Acquisition
Hermès is a business first and a French fashion house second. They understand the popularity of the Birkin bag and to ensure artificial demand for the exclusive bag, the brand only produces a few Birkin bags each year.
Acquiring one then becomes far more complex than just being able to afford the steep price tag.
To purchase a Birkin requires jumping through many hoops.
There are two methods to the madness of Birkin purchasing, a sprint and a slow crawl.
The sprint refers to contacting an independent reseller and buying a Birkin for an arm and leg – often $17,000 or more.
The slow crawl refers to building up a years-long relationship with a Hermès boutique sales associate and requires spending thousands of dollars on other bags, proving that you are a reliable and consistent customer who truly values the Hermès brand.
When first entering a Hermès boutique, of which there are 304 worldwide, you may find a sales associate who will be willing to help you. By dressing in Hermès and knowing the history of their various bag lines, you may impress the associate enough that they will allow you to buy a bag. Not a Birkin, never a Birkin first, but a bag.
Once you’ve spent the price of a house, quite literally – according to Madison Avenue Couture one may spend between $100,000 and $999,999 on other Hermès items before being offered a Birkin – the sales associate will likely present you with the long-awaited and hoped-for Birkin bag.
The Birkin Bag
According to the Hermès website, the Birkin bag is constructed entirely out of a rare, vegetable-tanned heritage leather that is designed to be used. Because of this, Birkin bags are often more desirable after they have been slightly used.
According to an article from Vogue, Jane Birkin, the it-girl herself, used her bag until it practically fell apart, entwining beads, scarves and trinkets around the straps.
After all, what good is a $20,000 bag if it gathers dust on a shelf?
