Stories Behind Timeless Iconic Bags: Hermès Birkin To Gucci Jackie

From the Hermès Birkin to the Gucci Jackie, a look at the stories behind these timeless and iconic bags

- Smita Tripathi

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER IN 1983 between actress Jane Birkin and Jean-Louis Dumas, then Creative Director of French luxury brand Hermès, resulted in the ultimate luxury bag, the Birkin. The story goes that the two were seated next to each other on an international flight, when Dumas asked why Birkin travelled with a simple straw tote. She explained that most leather bags were too structured for her taste and she wanted something much more boho. That led to the two of them designing the bag on the back of an airsickness bag. Little did anyone know that fashion history was being doodled that day. The Birkin has changed little in style or function since its inception. But what has changed is the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it commands at auctions, depending on the exotic skins and diamond-encrusted hardware. Last year, Sotheby's sold one for $440,000. The year before, Christie's sold one for £237,000. Most recently, a Hong Kong billionaire sold 76 Birkin bags from his private collection for $3.2 million at a Sotheby's auction.

"The Birkin is an iconic bag. It is made in such a way that it will stand the test of time. It is handmade by very trained craftsmen in the same way that Hermès makes saddles. It's an iconic model that will not go out of style," Rachel Koffsky, SVP and International Head of Department for Handbags & Accessories at Christie's, told Business Today recently. It takes a single expert craftsman up to 40 hours to produce a Birkin bag. The stitch on which the brand's reputation is based the saddle-cannot be replicated by a machine; it takes two needles simultaneously passing through the same seam to produce a Birkin correctly, she explains. Production is limited and the waitlist is so long that most people end up buying it on the secondary market.