Nairobi, July 11- The very first Birkin bag has made history after being auctioned for an astonishing KSh1.3 billion ($10 million), becoming the most expensive handbag ever sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sale took place at Sotheby\u2019s in Paris, where a private collector from Japan acquired the iconic black leather bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Birkin bag was first conceived in 1985, following a chance meeting on a flight between British-French singer Jane Birkin and Jean-Louis Dumas, then CEO of luxury fashion house Herm\u00e8s. During the flight, Birkin\u2019s belongings spilled out of her handbag, prompting a conversation about the lack of spacious, elegant bags for women. Dumas quickly sketched a design on an airplane sick bag, laying the foundation for what would become the Birkin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original prototype was never meant for commercial use but eventually inspired a global fashion staple renowned for its exclusivity and status. Herm\u00e8s went on to mass-produce the bag, which has since become one of the most sought-after accessories in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What makes this particular Birkin especially valuable are its personal touches from Jane Birkin herself. It features her initials on the front flap, a fixed shoulder strap, and even nail clippers she had attached. Visible marks show where she had placed stickers supporting causes like M\u00e9decins du Monde and UNICEF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jane Birkin, who passed away on July 16, 2023, owned the bag for ten years before donating it in 1994 to support an AIDS charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bag later came into the possession of Catherine Benier, who kept it for 25 years before selling it at the record-breaking auction on Thursday, July 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nairobi, July 11- The very first Birkin bag has made history after being auctioned for an astonishing KSh1.3 billion ($10 million), becoming the most expensive handbag ever sold. The sale took place at Sotheby\u2019s in Paris, where a private collector from Japan acquired the iconic black leather bag. The Birkin bag was first conceived in 1985, following a chance meeting on a flight between British-French singer Jane Birkin and Jean-Louis Dumas, then CEO of luxury fashion house Herm\u00e8s. During the flight, Birkin\u2019s belongings spilled out of her handbag, prompting a conversation about the lack of spacious, elegant bags for women. Dumas quickly sketched a design on an airplane sick bag, laying the foundation for what would become the Birkin. The original prototype was never meant for commercial use but eventually inspired a global fashion staple renowned for its exclusivity and status. Herm\u00e8s went on to mass-produce the bag, which has since become one of the most sought-after accessories in the world. What makes this particular Birkin especially valuable are its personal touches from Jane Birkin herself. It features her initials on the front flap, a fixed shoulder strap, and even nail clippers she had attached. Visible marks show where she …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-life-style"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3224,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions\/3224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}