There have been two occasions in my life on which I have touched a Hermes Birkin bag. The first time I was seven years old; a friend of my mum’s came over for lunch and around her wrist was a tan leather tote with stiff steep handles like two hills of a rollercoaster, and silver hardware centred around a simple lock closure. Throughout the lunch, she kept the bag in her lap, occasionally reaching down to pet it as though it were a puppy. At seven, I’d have been more excited if it were a little dog.
As the years passed, I’ve come to understand the significance behind a Birkin – why a woman in her thirties might be more excited by the prospect of a bag than a dog. Inspired by the French screen star and style icon Jane Birkin, the bag – which starts at $10,000 and runs upwards of $100,000 – was launched in 1984, but didn’t become truly famous until 2001 when an episode of Sex and the City chronicled Samantha’s ill-fated attempts to secure one (“It’s not a bag, it’s a Birkin!”). In 2008, Michael Tonello wrote a bestselling book titled Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted Handbag.
