Who bought Jane Birkin's $10.1 million original Birkin? TikTok shares theories about mystery buyer

There's only one question on the lips of the fashion community this week: Who paid €8,582,500 ($10.1 million) for Jane Birkin's original Hermes Birkin bag?

Even those who are no strangers to the big bucks the coveted handbags fetch at resale (prior to the latest auction, the record was held by the White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Returnee Kelly 28, which fetched $513,040 in 2021), were left gobsmacked by the price of the battered piece of history that has made one mystery buyer very happy.

The bag itself isn't the Birkin we know today, but rather the original design aptly named after its owner, Jane Birkin, who hung a pair of nail clippers from the inside, plastered the leather exterior with (now-faded) stickers, and had her initials stamped onto the front of it.

The story of the bag derives from when the actor was flying from Paris to London in 1985, when she accidentally dropped her belongings on the floor, and a mystery gentleman next to her suggested upgrading to a bag with pockets.

   Sotheby's 

“What can you do? Hermès doesn’t make them with pockets", she responded, not realising who she was actually talking to was Jean-Louis Dumas (Executive Chairman of Hermès from 1978 to 2006).

Together, they sketched up the design of the bag that would later be known as the Birkin on the bag of a paper sick bag, with Birkin noting how she needed a leather bag that met her needs as both a mother, and someone who wanted to look stylish -with Hermès' existing Kelly design being too small.

It's since gone on to become one of the most in-demand bags of all time, and mystery surrounds just how to get hold of one - with Hermès stores making it notoriously difficult to purchase if you're not an existing customer, with some spending years on waitlists.

From footage taken inside Sotheby's in Paris, we can see that the winning bid of the original bag goes to a telephone buyer, who still hasn't come forward to confirm their identity.

Other wannabe-purchasers in the room included the CEO of luxury handbag reseller Sellier, Hanushka Toni, who was livestreaming the auction on TikTok, and confidently bid up to the €2 million mark.

However, there are a few theories as to who its new owner could be.

Before the auction began, there were rumblings that Kim Kardashian would be in the running to buy it. After all, she's no stranger to pop culture history, having worn Marilyn Monroe's iconic 'Happy Birthday Mr President' dress to the Met Gala.

Drake was also a name thrown around online as a prospective buyer, given that he already owns an extensive Birkin collection spanning a two-storey closet in his home, that he says is "for his future wife". The exact number of bags he has isn't known, but it includes plenty of rare and exotic editions. So, why wouldn't he want to add the rarest of the rare to his collection?

But, the buyer could actually be someone slightly more low-key and unexpected.

Another name that's been heard on TikTok is that of influencer Jamie Chua, a Singaporean socialite who is no stranger to showing off her luxury goods online, including a closet allegedly containing over 200 Hermès bags, with their value up in the millions. But, she's yet to speculate on whether she's added this extra special addition to her already vast family of purses.

Others suspect that it's Japanese billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, who could have secured the deal. The billionaire founded the largest online fashion mall, Zozotown, in 1998, and is an avid art collector, having sold one of his Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings for $85 million at auction in 2022. Some would say a Birkin is art, right?

Lastly, it's suspected that it could even be Hermès themselves that bought the bag back for their archives.

For now, we'll be sat patiently waiting for the new owner to come forward, so we can let them know how very, very jealous we are.

Why not read...

ASOS is now permanently banning shoppers - but it doesn't address a bigger problem

Why sardines have become the biggest 'it' print of the summer - and it says a lot about the world

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings