Milan, 10 August 2023 – Maxi theft in the warehouse of the Hermès store in via Montenapoleone in Milan: disappear 4 bags – including one Birkin Himalayas – for a value of 90 thousand euros. No signs of forced entry were found on the doors. The bags were in areas accessible only to personnel and they were stolen and replaced with others, always Hermès, but of lower value. The discovery happened last August 7, when during a check it emerged that the precious bags were missing and the complaint was filed by those responsible at the police station in via Moscova who are now investigating.
The Birkin is a bag made by Hermès artisans. A Birkin is forever because it is ennobled over time and acquires more and more value with each passing day.
The Hermes maison says that “this object among the most desired of the last few decades” was born in the air during a Paris-London flight. On board, the recently deceased English actress Jane Birkin is seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, president of Hermès (1978-2006). The two start chatting and the actress complains about not being able to find a bag that fits his needs. “A born creative gifted with an infallible intuition – says the maison – Dumas immediately designs a capacious bag with a rectangular shape, soft and spacious, with a smooth profile and saddle stitching”. Just as the Hermes Kelly bag was inspired by Grace Kellythe Birkin therefore takes its name from Jane who with Serge Gainsbourg was certainly one of the most famous and transgressive couples of the jet set of the sixties.
Sold for dizzying figures, to have the famous it-bag, it is said, it is not enough to have the disposable income, some models are sold for the price of an apartment, but it helps lots of patience. You have to wait: the long waiting list because sales are sipped. A marketing strategy that makes this object even more exclusive, and therefore precious.
The brand philosophy draws its strength from the encounter between past and present, leveraging on a “hereditary” continuity that from generation to generation has always known how to add something new to the offer. After all, the brand’s philosophy can be summed up with this phrase: “innovation in the continuity of tradition”.
The high-quality accessory with the double handle, varies in size, there are three, the Birkin 25, the Birkin 30 and the Birkin 35 color and skin. For the price you start to think from 10 thousand euros upwards, up to reach exorbitant figures such as the crocodile one stolen in Milan which alone, it has been declared, has a value of 50 thousand euros. And it’s definitely not the most expensive.
There Birkin Himalayas is made in Nile crocodile skin and, precisely, the denomination does not refer to the origin of the bag as much as to the delicate gradation of the color: its gray that fades in a pearly white reminiscent of the Asian mountain range. Refined, difficult to work, made with refined and precious materials, these are the reasons that make the Birkin Himalaya a object of inestimable value, almost. In May 2017, Christie’s Hong Kong auctioned off a 10.23-carat diamond-encrusted model for £293,000 (more than €340,000) and, again, in 2020. Also during a Christie’s auction, a crocodile model Niloticus, with white gold and diamond details, was purchased by an anonymous buyer for £231,000 (almost €269,000).
