Birkin bags are one of the most sought-after items in fashion.
With the cheapest ones costing around £10,000 and reselling for much, much, more, it’s no wonder many collectors keep them pristine, often not even wearing them to avoid damage.
But instead of locking them away in a cupboard to be auctioned off, some celebrities have instead decided to customise their Birkins, often painting and decorating them.
With millions to spend, the likes of Kim Kardashian, her sister Kylie Jenner and Cardi B have shown off custom creations – to both the shock and delight of many fashion watchers.
But the first person to custom their Birkin bag was the eponymous Jane Birkin herself, who died this week aged 76.
Jane, the inspiration behind the iconic bag, would often over stuff her Birkin, and decorated it with personalised with stickers and talismans from her travels.
Jane Birkin, the inspiration behind the iconic bag, would often over stuff her Birkin, and decorated it with personalised with stickers and talismans from her travels
Jane seems to have inspired many others, with many stars following in her footsteps
Ms Birkin’s place in the pantheon of fashion icons was cemented by the creation of the famous Hermès Birkin bag. She is pictured with her handbag in May 2008
And Jane seems to have inspired many others, with many stars following in her footsteps.
Cardi B, who owns dozens of Birkins and recently gifted one to her daughter Kulture, created a custom bag for Megan thee Stallion to celebrate the success of their hit single WAP.
Their song WAP made history becoming the first female rap collaboration to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with the most first week streams and as the most streamed track of 2020.
To celebrate, Cardi B gifted Megan Thee Stallion a custom Birkin bag painted with scenes from their steamy music video.
The Hot Girl Summer hitmaker shared videos and pictures of her designer bag, thanking Cardi writing ‘thank you frennn (sic) omg I can’t believe you. I wonder what I’m gonna get her.’
Gifted: To celebrate the history making success of their collab WAP, Cardi B gifted Megan Thee Stallion a custom Birkin bag painted with scenes from their steamy music video, Megan shared to Instagram on Monday
Inspo: It was inspired by the Texas-born rappers solo scene in their hit music video in a white tiger strip painted room with two of the animals
Backside: On the bag was a detailed streets and in a sunset pallet and ‘be someone’ read on a dividing wall
Money and love: While the sides of the bag were adorned with spray-paint inspired hearts and dollar signs
The orange bag was designed on the front with a large white tiger surrounded by blue water drops.
To the right, a painting of Megan in her white tiger print bodysuit licks her finger.
It was inspired by the Texas-born rappers solo scene in their hit music video in a white tiger strip painted room with two of the animals.
Those wanting to get their hands on a Birkin bag have to build up a relationship with a Hermès sales representative and spend thousands before they are invited for the chance to purchase one.
Many celebrities have shared their love for the cult bag, with Drake once revealing he has a wardrobe full of them for his future wife.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian has multiple custom Birkins, including one that was painted by her then one-year-old daughter North West.
Kim also owns a custom red bandanna bag – while her sister Kylie own a similar design in white
The make-up mogul owns a tan Hermes leather handbag was customised with a nude painting by famous contemporary artist, George Condo
Kim Kardashian has multiple custom Birkins, including one that was painted by her then one-year-old daughter North West
Kylie also own a white bandanna bag
Khloe also has a one-a-kind painted purse designed and inked by graffiti artist Alec Monopoly
The make-up mogul owns a tan Hermes leather handbag was customised with a nude painting by famous contemporary artist, George Condo.
While the cost of the finished product is not known, it can be estimated by the fact that a Hermes Birkin the size of Kim’s retails for around $16,000 (£10,000), while one of Condo’s paintings, The Manhattan Strip Club, sold at auction last year for a staggering $1.3million.
The design features several eerie nude female figures and a bare-chested monster, and has been directly hand painted on the front of the very expensive leather good.
Kanye and Condo have known each other for several years after the rapper contacted the New York-based painter in 2010, asking him to create a series of paintings for his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Condo has been acclaimed in the art world for nearly 30 years, and is heralded as being a key figure in the ‘international revival of painting from the 1980’s onward’.
Another of the reality superstar’s bags was customised by her then baby daughter North West.
In 2014, North, now 10, covered the bag in red, orange and yellow splotches of paint and added her handprint to the bag.
Kim also owns a custom red bandanna bag – while her sister Kylie own a similar design in white.
Cardi B, who often sports bandanna inspired clothing, own a pink Hermes bandanna Birkin.
Cardi B, who often sports bandanna inspired clothing, own a pink Hermes bandanna Birkin
Yes please! Cardi has a special place at home alongside her impressive collection of designer pieces, which she revealed last year in a snap of her closet
Rita Ora has a hand-painted Birkin bag
Mohamed Hadid has his daughter Bella’s face painted on a Birkin
Kim isn’t the only Kardshian with a custom Birkin.
Khloe also has a one-a-kind painted purse designed and inked by graffiti artist Alec Monopoly.
‘My money bag,’ she captioned the photo showing the Kiwi green Epsom leather Candy Birkin bag transformed into a canvas for a custom work of art complete with her nickname ‘Khlomoney.’
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga has a white Birkin with ‘I love little monsters, Tokyo Love’ written on in Japanese characters. Little Monsters are the name of the Shallow singer’s fan base.
Tamara Ecclestone is believed to have a collection of Birkins worth £1.2million.
For her birthday in 2015 her husband Jay Rutland bought her a £16,000 customised bag with a painting of her daughter Sophia on.
Singer Lady Gaga shows her Hermes bag with hand written message ‘I love small monster, Tokyo Love’ in 2010
Tamara Ecclestone is believed to have a collection of Birkins worth £1.2million . For her birthday in 2015 her husband Jay Rutland bought her a £16,000 customised bag with a painting of her daughter Sophia on
NeNe Leakes has many of her famous catchphrases on her bag
Rita Ora, Mohamed Hadid, and NeNe Leakes have all also been spotted with their custom bags.
While Hermes don’t publicly list the price of Birkin bags, they can cost hundreds of thousands.
In 2019, a ten-year-old matte white crocodile hide Himalaya Birkin broke the European record for a bag sold at auction by fetching £162,500 at Christie’s.
A year later, in 2020, another crocodile Himalaya Birkin was sold to an anonymous buyer for £231,000, setting a new world record for what has been dubbed the ‘Holy Grail’ of handbags.
Unlike many of its competitors, it doesn’t gift its bags or pay ambassadors and influencers to endorse them, either. ‘We have celebrities who buy our bags, but we’ve never had a celebrity [ambassador], because everybody is seen as a client,’ Hermes CEO, Axel Dumas — a sixth-generation member of the Hermes family — told the Daily Mail in 2017. ‘Everybody’s welcome, no one is judged.’
Jane was the original creator of the custom bag
Although everyone is welcome in theory, it’s a luxury few can afford and the fanbase is a roll call of the world’s most fashionable — and famous — women, including Victoria Beckham (whose personal collection of Birkin bags is said to number over 100), Jerry Hall, Julia Roberts, Kate Moss, Jennifer Lopez and the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan.
Given the Birkin’s exalted status as the most expensive and desirable bag ever made, its beginnings are almost comically humble.
It was in 1980 that a 33-year-old Jane Birkin happened to sit next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then chief executive of Hermes, on an Air France flight from Paris to London.
When the British-born star attempted to place her straw travelling bag in the overhead compartment, everything fell out, cascading all over the pair of them.
Jane apologised and explained to Dumas it had been impossible to find a leather weekend bag she liked that could hold all the items she needed as a young mother.
Inspiration struck. They then spent most of the flight talking about what their ideal bag would look like, with Dumas scribbling designs on the back of a plane sick bag. The result: a simple rectangular holdall with a flap and distinctive saddle stitching.
In 1984, the first Birkins became available to buy, and have been selling steadily ever since, with demand constantly outstripping supply.
For even customers with the requisite bank balance can’t simply walk into a Hermes store and buy a Birkin. There is always a waiting list, its exact length shrouded in secrecy, but customers can routinely expect to wait several years.
Cynics might suggest that Hermes makes its bags deliberately scarce to fuel demand, but the truth is more pragmatic: a Birkin simply takes a very long time to make. Some 3,000 craftspeople work in 15 different ateliers spread across France (there’s no outsourcing to China with Hermes), each highly trained in the unique specifics of Birkin manufacture.
According to Axel Dumas, it takes seven years to master the art of making a crocodile Birkin, one of the most complex models.
With demand for brand new Birkins so high, and supply so scarce, their resale value is understandably hefty.
According to luxury resale site Vestiaire Collective, the Birkin is constantly one of its most in-demand bags, a trend echoed by other high-end resale businesses.
