Original Birkin bag sells for £8.6m

ACTRESS Jane Birkin’s original Hermes Birkin has sold for £8.6 million - becoming the most valuable handbag to ever be sold at auction.

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The original Birkin, named after the British actress and singer, is now also the second most expensive fashion item to ever be sold, after it went under the hammer at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday. The classic handbag was designed for Birkin, who starred in many French and British films from the 1960s onwards, and died in 2023.

Birkin happened to be seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then artistic director of Hermes, on an Air France flight in 1981. Carrying all her items in a wicker basket, she complained to Dumas that the handbags of the day tended to be too small to fit all of her belongings.