Calm yourselves to a dull panic: the very first Birkin bag ever made is going under the hammer.
In July, the Sotheby’s Paris “Fashion Icons” sale will feature the prototype Hermès made for Jane Birkin herself in 1984 – a bag that gave birth to what would become one of the most coveted luxury items of all time.
This isn’t your standard polished crocodile-skin trophy. It’s the lived-in, scuffed, initials-on-the-flap, nail-clippers-still-attached version that the French brand’s CEO, Jean-Louis Dumas, fashioned for the actress after a chance encounter on a flight. She’d complained that the basket she was using was too small and had no pockets. Dumas sketched a design mid-flight on an Air France air sickness bag, and the rest is design history.
The original Birkin (which we think looks so much lovelier as it’s worn in) was donated to an Aids charity in the 90s, purchased by its current owner in 2000, and has since appeared in museum exhibitions, including at the V&A in London.
Now it’s on the block – with no published estimate, but auction insiders suggest it could comfortably surpass the $500,000 record set by the ultra-rare “Himalaya” Birkins in recent years.
As canny investors will know, this bag isn’t just a pop culture and fashion icon, it’s also become wildly valuable. Owning a Birkin is a surprisingly sound investment strategy.
For years, luxury goods analysts and collectors have tracked the rise in value of Birkin bags, which are made in extremely limited numbers and sold only to the select few who make it onto Hermès’ secretive client list.
There’s no advertising, no e-commerce shopfront, and often no way of knowing when one might become available. This intentional scarcity has helped fuel a kind of retail mania. Celebrities from Kim Kardashian and Victoria Beckham to Melania Trump have proudly sported theirs, further stoking demand.
According to studies by Baghunter and other luxury tracking firms, Birkin bags have appreciated at an average rate of about 14.2% a year over the past 35 years – with zero historical depreciation. They’ve outperformed both gold and the S&P 500 over multiple time frames. Sure, the caveat here is that we’re talking about very specific model Birkins that shoot the lights out. Also, selling a bag is not always easy. But still, the general idea stands: the value holds strong.
Très chic
Of course, very few of us would be able to nab a Birkin, let alone the OG Birkin, so what other options are there to get in on making the bucks from a banging bag?
If you’d simply invested in Hermès International a decade ago, your portfolio would be looking très chic right now. “It’s the most valuable luxury brand right now and the stock has returned approximately 556.99% over the past 10 years,” Sasfin’s David Shapiro says.
“LVMH is brilliant but Hermès is much more focused,” he adds. “Like Ferrari (which in the nine years since it listed is up 948.94%), they sell everything they produce. Both brands have such limited production.” They are rare and beautifully made, car and accessories both.
These days you can easily buy Hermès shares on the Paris stock exchange from South Africa, including via international brokerage platforms like eToro and Saxo Bank.
That said, if you want to stick to the local market, then your best luxury bet is Richemont. The share has had a more up and down ride over the past decade, but since about 2021 it’s been playing solid catch-up, thanks in large part to its jewellery businesses, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. On the JSE, the shares have gained about 220% over the past decade.
These varying degrees of shiny stats do all point to the fact that the trifecta of incredibly fine crafted items, limited supply and cultural cachet remain lucrative. We think that some fancy brands make items that shout “I’m rich but tacky”, but we can’t deny that the mania for them, and their attractiveness as investments, show few signs of slowing.
As for the auction – we’ll be watching closely. If you bought Jane’s Birkin, would you use it!? Pipe dreams aside, it does illustrate that in the world of fast fashion and fleeting trends, an original, weathered bag is proof that true style – like a well-chosen asset – only gets better with age.
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