The No. 1 “It” Bag

Hermès Black Crocodile Birkin with Diamonds

1 Hermès Birkin
“It’s not a bag: it’s a f***ing Birkin!” shrieks Samantha, in Sex and the City, when she attempts to use Lucy Liu’s name to move up the legendary Hermès Birkin waiting list. What she means is this isn’t any bag, it’s the ultimate fashion status symbol.

Named after chanteuse Jane Birkin, the inception of the Birkin, in 1984, is the stuff legends are made of, as the truth is still shrouded in myth. According to author Stephanie Pendersen, in her book, Handbags, What Every Woman Should Know, the bag’s idea first came from a plane trip Birkin took, when she found herself sitting next to Hermès president Jean-Louis Dumas.

Jane Birkin admits to owning only one of her namesakes. Ironically, in 2006 she announced she was retiring her Birkin as, “ I love my Birkin bag, but I lug so much stuff around in it I believe it is part of the reason I have tendonitis.”

“With a price tag of nearly $150,000, the bag is made to special order.”

On Forbes magazine’s Most Extravagant Handbags list , Hermès is one of the leaders in the field. The Hermès Birkin in Croc Porosus Lisse is no boring, standard issue 35cm Birkin. This limited edition boasts 9-carats of shiny diamonds, with 1.86-carats on the lock itself. With a price tag of nearly $150,000, the bag is made to special order. According to Forbes, there are only two currently in existence, a rare bag indeed!

With the price tag of a Birkin starting around $7,000, only the most affluent women can afford to carry one. Even the wealthiest women must wait for an exquisitely stitched Hermès Birkin bag, so to own one screams exclusivity.

Hermes has stores all over the world, its flagship being in Paris. Its Paris workrooms produce only five Birkins per week, which explains the long waiting lists!

Reportedly, former Spice Girl, Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, has one of the largest Birkin collections in the world, worth over $2,000,000!! Oh to be rich & famous, married to David Beckham and the owner of a mansion with a room exclusively dedicated to your fab collection of Birkins – I. Heart. Posh.