A singular if properly worn purse created for the singer and actor Jane Birkin by the French luxurious items agency Hermès has been knocked down in Paris at €8.6m (£7.4m), making it the costliest style accent ever bought at public sale in Europe.
The unique battered Birkin bag, the one one in every of its variety, was utilized by France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, who died in 2023, for 9 years and nonetheless bears traces of the stickers she caught on its black leather-based.
The prototype of the long-lasting Hermès bag had been anticipated to fetch a six-figure sum. Within the occasion, bidding opened at Sotheby’s at €1m, drawing gasps from the room, and rose swiftly throughout a 10-minute battle between 9 collectors, some bidding by telephone and on-line.
The winner was a non-public collector from Japan, Sotheby’s stated on Thursday, including that the “extraordinary” worth additionally made the purse the second-most useful style merchandise ever bought at public sale, and essentially the most useful in Europe.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s world head of purses and style, stated the sale was a “startling demonstration of the ability of a legend and its capability to ignite the fervour and need of collectors searching for distinctive objects with distinctive provenance”.
The Birkin prototype was “the start line of a unprecedented story that has given us a contemporary icon, the Birkin bag, essentially the most coveted purse on this planet”, Halimi added, and “a celebration of the enduring spirit and attraction of its muse, Jane Birkin”.
The bag’s final proprietor, named as Catherine B, who has not disclosed what she paid for it, stated she was astonished by the consequence but additionally “profoundly moved by the best way others have invested a lot fervour making an attempt to amass what they desired past phrases”.
Le Birkin, which sells for 1000’s new and for a whole lot of 1000’s secondhand, took place after an opportunity airborne encounter between Birkin, greatest recognized outdoors France for the erotic hit Je T’aime Moi Non Plus, and Hermès chief, Jean-Louis Dumas.
The British-born singer and actor, who appeared in about 70 movies and for greater than a decade fashioned half of France’s most feted superstar couple with singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, advised Dumas that she couldn’t discover a bag large enough for her wants.
The prototype, the costliest purse ever bought at public sale, is embossed with the preliminary JB. It’s a totally different measurement to later manufacturing fashions, has a shoulder strap and options brass {hardware}, later changed with gold-plate rings, clasps and “ft”.
The world file for a style accent bought at public sale is $32.5m (£24m), paid in 2024 for a pair of ruby pink slippers worn within the The Wizard of Oz.