Original Birkin Bag to Go Up for Auction in July

There is no estimate for how high the bidding may go for the Hermès prototype of French actress-singer Jane Birkin's iconic bag

- Marisa Meltzer

NEW YORK — It is nearly impossible to walk inside an Hermès store and come home with a new Birkin bag. But if you want to get your hands on the original Birkin bag—the prototype made for British-French actress-singer Jane Birkin—it is going up for auction.

It will be sold as part of a Paris Fashion Icons sale, which Sotheby's is holding on July 10. Prior to that, it will be on view at Sotheby's Galleries in Paris from July 3 to 9.

There is no public estimate for how much the bag might fetch.

"At this stage, we will communicate it privately to potential bidders," said Ms Morgane Halimi, global head of handbags and fashion for Sotheby's.

"Obviously, it is a one-of-a-kind piece, completely apart from any other handbag or any other Birkin. We are breaking records with Birkin bags on a regular basis at auction. We foresee it to be as unique as the Diana jumper or a worn jersey from the NBA. It has value because of what it is and what has happened because of that bag."

This is the original bag made in 1984 for Jane Birkin, the late icon of French cinema. The story behind the bag has become something of a fashion legend.

She was on an Air France flight to London from Paris and had been upgraded to first class. The basket bag she carried, her signature for decades, was in poor shape. As she boarded the plane, the contents started to spill out: wallet, keys, business cards, diapers, glasses.

Her seatmate happened to be Mr Jean-Louis Dumas, then chief executive of Hermès, the French luxury house founded by Thierry Hermès in 1837.