In 1981, Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. She had just placed her straw bag in the overhead compartment of her seat, but the contents fell to the ground, leaving her to scramble to replace the contents. Birkin explained to Monsieur Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather weekend bag she liked. In 1984, he created a black supple leather bag for her, based on an 1892 design. This design became known as The Birkin, and from there a fashion iconic bag was born.
Craftsmanship
The bags are handmade in France by expert artisans. The company's signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s, is one of its distinctive feature. Each bag is hand-sewn, buffed, painted, and polished, taking several days to finish. An average bag is created in 48 hours. Leathers are obtained from different tanners in France, resulting in varying smells and textures. Because of the individual craftsmanship, other details of the bags may not all match. The company justifies the cost of the Birkin bag, compared to other bags, based on the meticulous craftsmanship and scarcity.
Demand
Due to the precise detail and energy it takes to make a Birkin by hand, only a limited amount of birkins are created each year. The Birkin bag is free of logos, yet it is one of the most recognized bags in the fashion industry. It is a highly coveted bag and, for several years, was reputed for having a waiting list of up to 6 years – the longest wait for any bag in history.
Most people today say the waiting list for a custom special order birkin is about 2-3 years depending on your luck.
Size
A handbag birkin is generally considered to be the sizes 25cm, 30cm, 35cm, 40cm. There are also travel size birkins but my blog is going to be dedicated to the handbag size birkins.
Leather
Buyers are able to custom their birkins with a variety of leather choices, hardware choices, and color choices. I will go into further detail on each one of these topics in feature post since there is a wide variety of options that will take awhile to blog about =).
These pictures are courtesy of Ilovemylife, an awesome member of TPF.
Happy Hermes Hunting!
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