In the rarefied world of luxury handbags, few items carry the emotional weight and cultural significance of Le Birkin Voyageur, a rare black Hermès Birkin once owned, carried, and personally inscribed by the late Jane Birkin herself, which will be auctioned in Abu Dhabi on December 5. The estimated value of the late actor’s black leather bag hovers between $230,000 and $430,000, arriving just months after her original prototype Birkin shattered world records.
This is not just another Birkin bag. This is a piece of fashion history, a fragment of Jane Birkin’s soul made tangible in supple black leather.
The story of the Birkin bag itself reads like modern mythology. In 1981, aboard an Air France flight, Jane Birkin found herself seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then the artistic director of Hermès. As she tried to stow her belongings in the overhead compartment, Jane’s famous wicker basket spilled its contents onto Dumas’s lap—a seemingly embarrassing moment that would transform the luxury fashion industry forever.
Frustrated with the small bags of the time, Jane lamented to Dumas that she couldn’t find a handbag large enough to hold her daily essentials, especially while traveling with her young daughter Charlotte. Recalling her influence on the brand, Jane Birkin told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a 2020 broadcast that after meeting Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas on an airplane, she sketched out the design on a sick bag.
Inspired by Jane’s practicality and her signature style, Dumas sketched a bag that would marry function and elegance—a design that would become the Birkin. In 1985, Hermès presented Jane with the prototype, asking for her permission to name the new model in her honor.
Gifted to Birkin by Hermes in 2003, Le Birkin Voyageur is one of four bags the celebrity owned after auctioning the original to raise money for an AIDS charity in 1994. What makes this particular bag extraordinary extends far beyond its pedigree.
The Birkin Voyageur stands out with a handwritten note in French from the actor herself, inscribed on the inside: “My Birkin bag, my globetrotting companion”. Inside, she doodled figures, signed “Jane B,” and scribbled reflections—turning the handbag into a living diary. It is the only Birkin in existence that carries Birkin’s own handwritten musings, making it not just a luxury object, but a piece of her soul.
Jane Birkin’s relationship with her namesake bags transcended mere ownership. “Selling her Birkin bags to raise funds for charities she cared deeply about… became a tradition for Jane Birkin, with Hermes replacing them every time,” Sotheby’s stated. This cycle of philanthropy and replacement created a unique lineage of personal Birkins, each carrying the weight of her compassion and activism.
This particular bag was first auctioned in 2007 to help a human rights organisation and ended up in a private collection, making this its first public appearance in over 15 years.
The auction comes on the heels of an unprecedented sale. The first custom-made Birkin bag sold for almost 8.6 million euros ($10.1 million) in Paris in July, making it the most expensive bag ever auctioned. That historic sale reignited global fascination with the woman who transformed a chance encounter into fashion immortality.
Hermès is said to have paid approximately $40,000 in royalties to Birkin annually in exchange for the use of her name. She consistently donated this money to various charities—a testament to her lifelong commitment to causes greater than herself.
Despite sharing its namesake, the actress only owned a few Birkins in her lifetime. She preferred to add unique touches to her handbag. Tapping into her passion for activism, she often covered it in stickers promoting her favorite causes. Birkin also accessorized its handles with beads, charms and ribbons.
“You know, when I’m dead, not only will people remember me for ‘Je t’aime moi non plus,’ but they’ll possibly only talk about the bag,” Birkin said in a CNN interview. Her prediction was both prescient and unfair—Jane Birkin was so much more than the bag that bears her name. Yet the bag itself became a canvas for her personality: practical, artistic, rebellious, and deeply human.
The auction takes place during Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, an ultra-luxury showcase presented by Sotheby’s in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), hosted at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort. The bag will be displayed in Abu Dhabi from December 2 until December 5, allowing collectors and admirers a rare opportunity to view this intimate artifact before the live auction on December 5.
Sotheby’s Global Head of Handbags and Fashion, Morgane Halimi, reflects on the momentous occasion: “To present not one, but two of Jane Birkin’s personal Hermès bags in a single year is extraordinary. Le Birkin Voyageur is not simply a luxury item—it’s a deeply personal artifact from an enduring cultural and style icon whose influence transcends fashion”.
“This is not just fashion history. This is personal history. It is the closest a collector can come to walking in Jane Birkin’s shoes”, notes the auction preview. For whoever wins the bid, they will acquire more than leather and hardware—they will possess a fragment of Jane Birkin’s journey, her travels, her activism, and her indomitable spirit.
Jane Birkin, who died in 2023 at the age of 76, left behind a legacy that extends far beyond cinema and music. In this single black leather bag, decorated with her own hand, lies the essence of a woman who turned fashion into art, luxury into charity, and a chance meeting into cultural legend.
As Le Birkin Voyageur prepares to find a new home, it carries with it the whispers of its travels, the weight of its causes, and the indelible mark of the woman who made it more than just a bag—she made it a story worth telling.
