Hermès is not famous because it’s expensive. Plenty of things are expensive. Hermès is famous because it says no to you. You can have the money, the taste, the right references and still be told to wait. Or worse, to come back later. That refusal is the brand’s real currency. Somewhere along the way, Hermès ceased to be just about leather goods and became something else entirely: a system built on status, investment, and cultural mythology.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the bags that sit at the very top of the Hermès hierarchy. They are historical objects, traded in auction rooms and highly coveted in collector circles. And, to think, the most important of them all was never designed to be important at all.
The Most Expensive Hermès Bags Ever Sold
1. Jane Birkin’s Original Birkin
No handbag has carried more cultural weight than the Birkin and no Birkin matters more than the first one. Earlier this year, Jane Birkin’s original Hermès Birkin sold for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s, becoming the most expensive handbag ever sold at an auction. What made it expensive wasn’t only how rare it was, but its origin.
The bag was conceptualised in 1984, on a flight from Paris to London. Actress and singer Jane Birkin, seated next to then Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, spilled the contents of her straw bag and complained casually about not being able to find a leather bag that actually worked for her life. Dumas sketched an idea mid-air: a large, soft, rectangular holdall with a flap, saddle stitching, and room for everything, including baby bottles.
In 1985, Hermès presented Birkin with the prototype and asked if they could name the bag after her. This original version was never meant for sale. It carried details that would later disappear from commercial models, making it unmistakably singular.
Birkin used the bag daily for nine years. It aged, scuffed, softened – exactly as she did. In 1994, she donated it to a charity auction benefiting Association Solidarité Sida, a French AIDS organisation. It resurfaced at auction in 2000 and remained in private hands until its historic sale in July 2025.
Before this moment, the auction record for a handbag belonged to the Hermès White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Kelly with Diamonds, which sold for $513,040 in 2021. That record no longer stands.
2. Jane Birkin’s Le Birkin Voyageur
If the original Birkin represents a beginning, Le Birkin Voyageur represents a life lived with it. In December 2025, another Hermès bag once owned by Jane Birkin was sold in Abu Dhabi for $2.9 million, far exceeding expectations. The sale followed closely on the heels of the $10.1 million auction earlier that year, reinforcing the market’s obsession with Jane Birkin and her bags.
The piece is a black Birkin 40 in Box leather, carried by Birkin between 2003 and 2007. The wear is visible. Inside, Birkin left a handwritten note that inspired its name: Le Birkin Voyageur – the traveller. The bag last sold in 2007 for €74,000, with proceeds benefiting the Human Rights Association. Its reappearance nearly two decades later turned it into something closer to a personal archive than a fashion object.
3. The Himalaya Birkin ($100,000–$500,000)
If there is a Birkin that functions like folklore, this is it. The Himalaya Birkin is crafted from Niloticus crocodile skin, dyed in a gradient that moves from white to smoky grey, meant to resemble snow-covered Himalayan peaks. The effect is subtle, deliberate, and extremely difficult to achieve.
Versions set with 18-karat white gold hardware and diamonds are among the most expensive handbags ever produced. The lock alone contains 68.4 grams of white gold and 40 brilliant-cut diamonds. Across the bag, more than 200 diamonds are set into the hardware, totalling 8.2 carats.
With or without diamonds, the Himalaya Birkin sits at the apex of collector desire. Few are made. Fewer still ever come to market.
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4. Birkin Faubourg ($160,000–$300,000)
Introduced in 2019, the Birkin Faubourg is Hermès at its most self-referential. The bag is a miniature architectural homage to the brand’s flagship at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where Hermès relocated in 1880. The façade appears on the bag itself complete with three window panels and orange awnings. A tiny shopping-bag clochette, crafted in matte alligator leather, hangs from the handle.
Originally released in Brown (Day) and Blue (Night), Hermès later added Black and White versions. The White or “Snow” Faubourg is the most valuable, with one selling for over $300,000 in 2022.
5. Diamond Birkin (Non-Himalaya) ($65,000–$200,000)
The Diamond Birkin never really goes out of style. It just disappears for a while, then comes back exactly where it left off. Collectors chase it. People who know notice it immediately. It’s often called the sister to the Diamond Himalaya. It differs mainly in how the exotic crocodile skin is treated. The bag pairs ultra-luxe crocodile leather with diamond-set white gold hardware, elevating an already iconic silhouette.
Made in the usual Birkin sizes – 25, 30, 35, and 40, the Diamond Birkin comes in classic Hermès colors, from black and brown to pinks and reds. Prices shift depending on size and colour. The appeal doesn’t.
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6. Birkin 20 Matte Alligator ($75,000–$115,000)
Hermès expanded its elite Birkin line-up in 2023 with the launch of the Birkin 20 in Matte Alligator. The first of these rare pieces appeared at auction during Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale in October 2023, where a Vert D’eau Matte Alligator Birkin 20 in the structured Sellier design with gold hardware fetched 889,000 HKD (around $115,570 USD). While the Birkin 20 shares a similar size, shape, and Sellier construction with the Faubourg, its silhouette is strikingly minimalistic, emphasizing clean lines over embellishments.
7. Metallic Birkin ($55,000–$100,000)
The Hermès Metallic Birkin, launched in 2005, is a limited-edition model available in silver and bronze. Measuring 25 centimetres at the base, it’s one of the smaller Birkins. The silver version features palladium hardware, while the bronze comes with gold hardware. Its design draws inspiration from the window displays created by Leïla Menchari for Hermès’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré store. Apparently, Hermès artisans apply so much dye that it changes the texture of the leather.
8. Ombré Lizard Birkin ($40,000–$80,000)
The Ombré Lizard Birkin is rare not by design, but by biology. Lizard skins are small, limiting production and restricting most Ombré Birkins to the 25-centimetre size. The defining feature is the symmetrical gradient pattern across the skin, paired typically with palladium hardware. Even the lock and clochette are covered in lizard leather. Once auctioned for $137,500, prices have since gone down. Today, a boutique-fresh version can cost around $80,000.
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The Hermès Bag Hierarchy, Explained Simply
At the very top sit the Jane Birkin bags and the Himalaya Birkin, trading anywhere between $100,000 and well over $1 million.
Below them are the ultra-rare Birkins and Kellys, generally valued between $30,000 and $100,000.
Next come the rare icons – Mini Kelly, Kelly Pochette, and Constance, priced roughly between $15,000 and $30,000.
The classic staples – Birkin 30 and 35, Kelly 28 and 32, typically fall between $9,000 and $15,000.
Even the “entry-level” Hermès bags – Evelyne, Garden Party, Herbag, Picotin and Bolide, start around $2,000 and move upward from there.
With Hermès, even the simplest bags carry a level of exclusivity that money alone can’t guarantee.
