Jane Birkin met the Hermès CEO after a flight mishap in the 1980s, and their conversation led to the iconic Birkin bag. Each one takes at least 18 hours to hand-craft, but the real reason they cost over $100,000 is scarcity: Hermès deliberately limits who can buy them.
Birkin bags are one of the most collectible items in the world, and many sell for over $100,000. But a handbag? Makes no sense. It all starts in the 1980s with this woman. Her name is Jane Birkin. She's a French actress and singer, and she's just boarded a flight, but the overhead space is super crowded, so she tries everything to get her bag to fit, and the bag falls and spills all of its contents. So the gentleman sitting next to her asks, well, why don't you have a bag that offers pockets? I will when Hermès makes me one. And so it just happens she's sitting next to the CEO of Hermès. When you see something go wrong in your life, that often presents an opportunity for you to fix that thing, and from that create a great business that'll fix it for other people too. So the two of them together sketch up the idea of the Birkin bag. And you know, when you're buying the Birkin bag, you're buying quality. Each handbag takes a minimum of 18 hours to craft. But that's not why this bag is so expensive. It's expensive because it's incredibly hard to get. And because it's hard to get, people really want one, and only a few trusted customers are able to buy them from Hermès.
