It's not a Birkin; it's 'the' Birkin

It's nearly impossible to walk inside an Hermès store and come home with a new Birkin bag.

- MARISA MELTZER

But if you wanted to get your hands on the original Birkin bag — the prototype made for actress 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 July 10.

The bag will be on view at Sotheby's in Manhattan through Tuesday and then transported — representatives would not say how, citing security concerns — to Sotheby's Galleries in Paris, where it will be on view from July 3-9.

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

"At this stage we will communicate it privately to potential bidders," said Morgane Halimi, the 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 Birkin, who was an icon of French cinema. The story behind the bag has become something of a fashion legend. Birkin 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, cigarettes, glasses.