Hermes Birkin Bag 101
By: Jennifer H.
The Birkin bag was born in 1985 when Hermes offered to make a bag for British-born actress Jane Birkin to accommodate her belongings after an executive witnessed her possessions spilling out of her bag on an airline flight. The design was based on an already existing bag, the Haut A
Courroies, or HAC, which was originally designed as a bag for riding boots, befitting the company’s saddlery heritage, and is still offered by Hermes.
The Birkin bag comes in 5 sizes, all referring to the measurement of the length of the base of the bag in
centimeters (25, 30, 35, 40, 45). There are 5 choices of hardware: 24Kt. gold-plate, silver palladium, brushed silver palladium, ruthenium and guilloche. The color and leather
choices are nearly endless. They begin at about $7,000 and can easily go above $150,0000 (this will get you a
35cm crocodile Birkin with diamonds on the front clasp). The prices go up each year.
While this amounts to a large number of ways one might personalize their bag (with or without diamonds,
etc.), a Birkin is one of the most recognizable and least unique talismans of a luxe life thanks to a “Sex And
The City” episode, as well as every starlette on the rise sporting one in Hollywood. Oh, and fakes abound…
fake Birkins, that is.
The latest chapter in this bag’s celebrated and coveted existence is that its namesake has forsaken it. Ms.
Birkin has accused the very sturdy and heavy leather tote of giving her tendonitis and now prefers to carry a
very pared down collection of essentials in a Sporran (a small leather or fur pouch typically worn by the Scots
with a kilt).
Hermes Birkin Bag 101
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