The name Birkin might be stitched forever into the story of the Hermès bag but before the legend there was the woman, and today we’re turning our gaze to her. Jane Birkin. English, outspoken and magnetic. She was an actress, a singer, a muse, but she also was a voice of compassion, philanthropy and authenticity. In fashion and culture, in a tilted basket, a slip dress and a song that won’t quit, her name refuses to fade, part tribute, part evidence that legends often outgrow the lives before them.
Behind the Name
Born in London on 14 December 1946, Jane Birkin drifted into cinema and music, and somehow, as if by accident, ended up a fashion icon. She moved to Paris at 18, dove into film and theatre, and met Serge Gainsbourg, a creative force in his own right, known for his lyrics and melodies that carried them. Together, they made some of the most iconic music of the era, like Je t’aime… moi non plus, originally written for Brigitte Bardot, Comic Strip, Ex-fan des sixties, and countless more that make you pause and feel like they never really aged. Birkin’s talent extended beyond music into film. She appeared in classics such as Blow-Up, La Piscine, La Belle Noiseuse, the Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile, and even later works like Daddy Nostalgia.
Even as a kid, Birkin had a sense of justice. She spoke out against capital punishment, stood up for women, quietly helped immigrants, and backed HIV/AIDS causes. Her life was a blend of art, activism, and a kind of style that couldn’t be staged, the kind that comes from within. We’ve always believed the best look is one built on kindness.
From Basket to Birkin: How a Flight Inspired Fashion’s Most Famous Bag
Still, fashion has its language, so let’s shift from the spirit to the seams. Birkin’s style was effortless, entirely her own. She made the undone Parisian look famous, long before it hit our feeds. T- shirts tucked into high-waisted jeans. Translucent slip dresses. Mini skirts and menswear touches. The subtle audacity of skipping a bra. Casual met chic as masculine met feminine. Her approach helped define what we now think of as the French girl aesthetic, inspiring designers like Chloè and Céline, her influence still flows through generations of fashion devotees.
She used to carry a wicker basket as her bag almost everywhere, until her encounter with Jean-Louis Dumas, then CEO of Hermès, changed everything. On a flight from Paris to London, Birkin’s belongings tumbled to the floor as they sat side by side. In a CNN interview Birkin recalled telling Dumas “Why don’t you make a bag that’s sort of four times the Kelly, that you can leave open, and half the size of my suitcase? Because girls like to have things on the end of their arm to put all of their stuff in. He said, well draw it for me and so I drew it on one of those sick-bags, the vomit-bags in the airplane. He was true to his word”.
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When Memory Meets the Market, Bidding on a Legacy
On July 10, 2025, the prototype Birkin bag, the one made for Jane Birkin herself, was sold to a Japanese collector at Sotheby’s iconic Paris auction for around $10.1 million, fees included. The sale quickly took over the internet, no one could look away, a reminder that myth and market still feed each other. But this wasn’t the first time one of Jane’s bags went under the hammer. Birkin herself auctioned this very same bag in 1994, after nearly nine years of use, in support of Association Solidaire Sida, a charity fighting for HIV/AIDS causes. In 2000, the bag resurfaced at auction and found a home with French collector Catherine Benier, who kept it for almost 25 years.
This time, Le Birkin Voyageur, personally owned and carried by Jane, is set to be auctioned during Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, on December 5 2025, following a public viewing from December 2-5 at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort. Estimated between $240,000 and $440,000, the bag bears Jane’s handwritten note: “Mon Birkin bag qui m’a accompagné dans le monde entier”, “My Birkin bag that has accompanied me around the whole world.”
One of the few Birkins she held onto, long after the 1994 prototype was gone. Intimate and heavy with history. We hope those who carry her legacy feel more than the stitching in their hands, the pulse of her humanity, still alive in the spaces she once walked.
More than a bag, more than a sale, these Birkins carry traces of a life lived out loud, curious, kind. Beyond fashion and history, each bag holds Jane’s spirit, her art and activism, folded into leather and hardware. Her legacy isn’t measured in price tags, but in the footprints she left in the world, still echoing long after the auctioneer’s hammer falls.
