News

The seven secrets behind the most famous bag in the world


A red Birkin bag is pictured with silver detailing

The Birkin bag is the most famous bag in the world (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

If you’re familiar with Sex And The City, you’ll remember with fondness when one of the show’s most beloved characters, Samantha Jones, attempts to bag herself a free Birkin when she takes on Lucy Liu as a client for her PR business.

At the time, the bag was worth $4,000 (£3,063.70) – mere peanuts compared to what it typically goes for today, which can be anywhere from £26,000 up to a whopping £300,000.

Now, the most famous bag in the world has been placed on public display as part of a new exhibition at Sotheby’s, Excellence à la Française, designed to spotlight some of the most notable examples of French art over the last 1,000 years.

Exhibited from now until October 31, this marks the first time that the original Hermès Birkin has been exhibited in France.

It’s only been featured in two displays previously, once at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2018, and again at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2020.

The Birkin bag was modelled on Jane Birkin herself (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

The product of a chance encounter on a flight between Jane Birkin and Jean-Louis Dumas, who was then the CEO of Hermès, the bag was tailored to suit the actress herself and thus the Original Hermès Birkin handbag was born in 1985.

Ever since, it’s been spotted on the arms of countless celebrities, including Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Lopez, Rita Ora and Lindsay Lohan.

But did you know that there are seven secrets behind the original version of the most iconic bag in the fashion industry?

Firstly, the key lies in the size. The first two Birkin bags created by Hermès measured 40cm and 35cm, and the Original Birkin is a combination of the two sizes, using the width and height of a Birkin 35 and the depth of a Birkin 40. The more you know!

There are seven features that distinguish an original Birkin (Picture: Getty Images)

The next secret lies in the hardware. While the original uses gilded brass hardware, this was replaced by gold-plated hardware when the first Birkin series was launched around 1986, and later on, rose gold, palladium and ruthenium were also introduced.

Elsewhere, the metal rings on the original are closed – and this is key to its design, which is similar to that of the Haut A Courroies model. The rings on the models that came afterwards were open at the bottom, a design kept in place until the early 1990s, when they were replaced with the open-top rings we still see today.

Likewise, the inner zip is also a key part of the design. When the original Birkin was produced, Hermès bought its zippers from the éclair company, but from the 1990s onwards, as it started business with Riri, the zippers were manufactured in a slightly different way to the original.

The Birkin is a world-famous design (Picture: Guy Bell/REX)

The bottom studs of the bag (also known as the …read more

Source:: Metro

      

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *