It's the Birkin bag to end all Birkin bags.
This summer, Sotheby's auction house will solicit bidders for Jane Birkin's original Hermès bag, designed and named after the British actress and singer.
Now a cultural institution – and status symbol for the ultra-wealthy – the original bag will hit the auction block July 10 in Paris as part of Sotheby's inaugural Fashion Icons sale.
A handmade, sleek black prototype, the bag that spawned a fashion phenomenon, will first travel to New York City, where it will be displayed in a Sotheby's gallery, before it lands in Paris for final auction.
First designed in 1984, as a collaboration between Birkin, who was living in Paris at the time, and Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, the bag originated via an in-flight armrest conversation.
