The luxury fashion house that created the Birkin handbag in 1984 after Jane Birkin met its chief executive was Hermès.
The bag’s origin is linked to a chance conversation between British singer and actress Jane Birkin and Jean-Louis Dumas, then chairman and chief executive of Hermès. They met on a flight from Paris to London, where Birkin reportedly described the difficulty of finding a practical yet elegant leather weekend bag. Dumas later developed a design inspired partly by an existing Hermès travel bag.
The Birkin is handmade by a single artisan, and its construction can require many hours of work. It is produced in multiple sizes, leathers, colors, and exotic skins, with hardware options that include gold and palladium finishes. The bag is named for Jane Birkin, while Hermès’s other famous handbag, the Kelly, is named after Grace Kelly.
The Birkin is often confused with the Kelly because both are iconic Hermès handbags with structured silhouettes and high resale values. Their shapes and closure designs differ, however: the Birkin generally has two handles and an open top secured by a flap, while the Kelly is typically carried with one handle and has a more formal profile.