Demand for Hermès Birkins has soared after Jane Birkin’s death: the iconic accessory has surpassed the Kelly in popularity, with wearers honouring the late singer’s carefree style

Jul 25 , 2023

Hermès named its iconic Birkin bag after the late Jane Birkin. Photos: WireImage, AFP

Hermès’ iconic Birkin bag hardly needs any more publicity. But in the days after Jane Birkin’s death on July 16, hundreds of thousands of images were shared of Britain’s most Parisian daughter – and in a fair number of them she is holding the iconic bag that was named after her. It’s perhaps for this reason that the demand for Birkin bags has shot up even more than usual over the last week, according to The Guardian.

People attach flowers to the gate of French late singer Serge Gainsbourg in central Paris on July 20, to pay tribute to his former partner Jane Birkin, British-born singer and actor who died on July 16, in Paris, aged 76. Photo: AFP

Jane Birkin and the Hermès Birkin bag are inextricably linked. In 2020, Birkin told CNN that after the bag’s fame skyrocketed, she wondered whether it might be the accessory – rather than her films or famous song “Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus” – that would form the first line of her obituary. “Bless me, when I’m dead … [people] will possibly only talk about the bag,” she said.

If she had seen the wall-to-wall coverage of the last week, she would know that was far from true – but it should come as no surprise that over the last few days the demand for the Hermès Birkin has been more intense than ever.

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British actress and singer Jane Birkin performs on stage at the Festival Antigel in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

“The sad death of Jane Birkin does have an impact on the value of the handbags,” says Hanushka Toni, founder of second-hand luxury platform Sellier. “At Sellier we normally see around a 50/50 split between clients looking to purchase a Birkin or Kelly bag – in the wake of the news we’ve seen a significant shift in interest towards the Birkin over the Kelly bag, with a 20 per cent increase in enquiries for Birkins.”

The way Birkin used her bag has also been hugely influential. In her typical laid-back yet ultra-stylish way, she stuffed her bags to the brim with half-read books, silk scarves and straw hats. This feels refreshing in a world where luxury bags are often treated like the crown jewels and it reflects the way the design came into the world.

Jane Birkin was known for not being precious about her handbags, frequently overfilling them as pictured here at the Élysée Palace in Paris, France, in May 2008. Photo: Getty Images

The Birkin’s iconic silhouette – a wide, flat bottom, with handles and a flap top – was created in 1984 when Birkin found herself seated next to Hermès’ then-chairman Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight between Paris and London. He noticed her handbag was stuffed to the brim and fraying at the seams, and she explained that while she had always wanted a bag “half the size of my suitcase”, she had never been able to find one.

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“He said, ‘Well, draw it for me,’ and so I drew it on one of those sick bags – the vomit bags – in the aeroplane,” Birkin said, in the same conversation with CNN. Dumas duly went on to produce such a bag in Birkin’s name, but the singer famously only kept one at a time, preferring to carry the same model day in, day out until it was unusable.

Actress Jane Birkin holds her Hermès Birkin handbag during the France Film Festival press conference at Roppongi Hills in March 2010, in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: WireImage

Birkin’s famously laissez-faire approach to her bags has now influenced the market. “Even though the Birkin bag is the ultimate luxury handbag, Jane Birkin ushered in the idea about not being super precious about your bags,” says Toni.

“Since she passed away, we’ve seen a demand for the historic, vintage, distressed Birkin and Kelly bag – bags that are worn and appear visibly used, that show a sense of history, time and place. Famously one of Jane Birkin’s bags recently sold at auction for £119,000 [US$150,000]. The bag was very worn and showed a lot of wear and tear, including bite marks from her cat. She was the original influencer and she showed women how to wear luxury bags and not be precious about them.”

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A guest wears a blue shiny leather crocodile print pattern Birkin handbag from Hermès during the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival at Hotel Martinez in May 2022, in Cannes, France. Photo: GC Images

Used or unused, the already impossible-to-source Birkin bag will surely be harder than ever to get hold of now. Auction houses and second-hand marketplaces are usually the best place to start: Vestiaire Collective, 1stDibs, Hardly Ever Worn It and Collector Square are all major players. If you want a brand-new bag, you’ll need to go into Hermès to inquire – although waiting lists no longer exist as the stock varies from boutique to boutique, according to Vogue.

But whether you have a Birkin or another model, be inspired by Jane Birkin herself and fill it to the brim with all the things you love – after all, that’s what the bag was designed for.

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Hermès

Jane Birkin, the woman who inspired Hermès’ now-iconic and highly sought-after Birkin handbag, passed away on July 16 at her home in Paris – leaving behind a legacy beyond the bag
The French-British singer-actress was known for her laissez-faire style and only ever kept one Birkin at a time, wearing it day in day out in wear-and-tear fashion – and you can too