Launched by the French luxury design house Hermès in 1984 at a price point of $2,000, the Birkin bag – in its rarest leathers and brightest colourways – has since been sold at prices exceeding $450,000, according to Sotheby’s. In 2022, one of Jane’s very own vintage Birkin bags sold in the UK for £119,000 at Bonhams. Today, a standard Birkin bag goes for approximately $10,000 US dollars. Yet the paragon of wealth and luxury has strangely humble beginnings.

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