Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Hermes Birkin bag. You've heard of it




The Birkin bag is a hand-built beauty of exquisite craftsmanship. Each leather creation can take up to 48 hours of work to complete, meaning it can take weeks to produce just one original Hermes handbag. That accounts for the $5,000 beginner bag price tag, on up to the double digit thousands for bags that get the star treatment. A noted Birkin with diamonds and black crocodile skin sold for $65,000 in 2005.
The bags were famously thought up in mid-air. British-born actress and singer Jane Birkin, was flying from Paris to London in 1984 when her Hermes datebook flew open, letting loose a cache of papers. Sitting next to her on the plane was Hermes CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. He asked for her datebook, and she somehow happily agreed to turn it over. Thank goodness she did as Dumas returned it to her with a little pocket sewn in to the back. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. The two began to correspond, Birkin sharing with Dumas her ordeal in finding a leather handbag for weekend errands. She went on to tell Dumas exactly what she thought the perfect bag would look like, inside and out. Dumas sent her the first Birkin, with a little pocket sewn into the back. At least that's one version. Ms. Birkin is definitely the bag's namesake, one way or another.

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