Jane is the namesake of the bag, and carried plenty of them during her life. She has recently auctioned off her namesake bags for charity, but they served her well and gave her a better sense of convenience while traveling and carrying belongings. Now Hermes Birkin bags are fawned over by millions of women all over the world, and they have become an undeniable symbol of wealth and luxury.

1984
Jane Birkin is an English actress who was based in France during the majority of her career. She appeared in movies such as Blowup and Wonderwall and then moved towards the French industry, winning the lead female role in the 1969 film Slogan. She appeared in a variety of songs with Serge Gainsbourg and quickly rose to fame in the industry, even though she didn't speak fluent French. Jane was also a model and had a passion for luxurious and fashionable clothing.

Jane and the Hermes chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas met by chance in 1981. While getting ready to depart on an airplane, Jane was trying fit all of her carry-on items in the overhead compartment. She was carrying a straw bag that couldn't hold onto her belongings properly, and everything came down crashing onto her. Jane began to rant about how nicer bags were never big enough to carry belongings, and Mr. Dumas was suddenly inspired with a new idea. Dumas figured that Jane wasn't the only woman to encounter this problem, and he saw an opportunity to create something unique, fashionable and practical.

1990
Within ten years, the Birkin bag has captured the attention of the world. The contents of a house could fit inside this 40-cm-large piece. The Birkin should be held by its two handles, with the flap inside. It comes in cowhide, ostrich leather and calfskin; and in two new dimensions: 30 and 35 centimetres, and later in 25 centimetres. The Birkin varies, yet never changes.

2009
The Birkin bag is shaped like a simple rectangle. So why not play with its geometry? Take this Birkin shadow bag, which plays with trompe l’oeil: are the straps real or fictitious? Viewed from a perpendicular angle, the optical illusion is exquisitely unsettling. A Birkin bag of tricks, but, when all is said and done, a real bag nonetheless.

2010
The Birkin So-Black bag was made for monochromatic blackaholics. Not only is the box calfskin in splendid black, but, thanks to a process as secret as it is innovative, all the metallic pieces – the padlocks, strap brackets, swivel clasps, keys and base studs – are in dense, shiny black. It’s only natural that the Birkin So-Black bag shows its true colour inside a black box.

2013
Hermès has been using canvas since the beginning of the 20th century. Praised for its lightness, it is used to make beach clothes and summer hats. It is then paired with the finest leathers to give the pieces a sporty look. The Birkin flag bag recalls voyages on the great transatlantic ocean liners of the past, when discerning travellers would fix a tag of a distinctive colour to their luggage for easy identification. The contrasting canvas panel in the middle of the Birkin flag bag is a visual reminder of these crossings.

2017
Take a scarf whose name sounds like a nursery rhyme and print it on a Birkin bag. Printed leather, that’s the trick! The original drawing has been reworked, adapted to the model – using screen-printing with one colour per screen – and assembled with minute precision so it is in perfect continuity with the bag. Lo and behold, you have it: the Birkin One Two Three and Away We Go.

2018
An all-too-long-forgotten, fully vegetable-tanned heritage leather is back in the saddle! For the smooth-grained version of the Birkin bag in natural cowhide, the oh-so-rare material is tanned using aniline, without any fixative, while its transparent finish reveals all the natural qualities of the cowhide. This grained leather gets a beautiful patina over time. The Birkin bag in natural cowhide comes exclusively in natural sand.

The bag showcases a sense of undeniable style, yet is notably one of the finer and more sophisticated bags on the market, a bag you carry on your arm to fancy events rather than toying around downtown with your friends. And while the bag is remarkably similar to the Hermes Birkin Bag, the Kelly has its own sense of style with a firmer rectangular shape free of slouching. The Kelly is also handcrafted with a single handle rather than two.

1930
A century after the house of Hermès opened the doors of its saddle-making workshops, Robert Dumas created a small bag with straps for ladies. It had a trapezoid shape, two triangular gussets, a sculpted flap, a handle, and good storage space. Nothing fancy, just a neat, plain, functional bag intended for independent, energetic women. The ladies’ bag with straps was an emblematic Hermès design: both highly desirable yet anonymous. It simply needed a name.

1937
The ladies’ bag is sewn backwards and turned inside out, like a glove. Yet, this softening does not affect its fundamental composition: namely, thirty-six leather pieces assembled by a craftsman devoted to beautiful, noble gestures, six-hundred-and-eighty hand stitches, sixteen small studs, a padlock, a swivel clasp and a leather key cover or clochette. Since then, the Sellier and Retourne versions have coexisted. After all, why choose?

1956
What a twist to the tale! Grace Kelly, the Hollywood star who became a princess, hides her baby bump behind her Hermès bag with straps. The picture goes around the world, and the bag is instantly crowned. The Kelly bag is born.

1968
Picture it: May 1968. France is in turmoil, but the Kelly bag keeps its four tiny metallic feet firmly on the ground. It is well-balanced, tranquil and timeless. This radical-chic version in black box calfskin speaks for itself.

Since 1987
A symbol of exclusivity, the Kelly bag revels in its myriad reinventions: be it in wood, silver plate, organdy, cardboard, chocolate, straw, silk- or wire mesh – like the one created by Leïla Menchari, the window designer for the Faubourg flagship – or even in bread, whose crust was as golden-brown as weathered leather. Special orders unleash craftspeople’s creativity: nailed like a fakir, pinned-up like a punk, made of feathers, plush, denim or sheared mink, the Kelly bag invents new twists to its own myth.

2000
Jean-Louis Dumas, the CEO at Hermès, is also the Chief of Elegant Outline: he lives with a pencil in hand and breathes playful creativity. One of the sitting characters he drew resulted in the Kellydoll bag (French for “What an Idol”). This anthropomorphic, cheerful bag was soon to become an icon and Kawaii mascot in Japan. Arigato, Jean-Louis.

2004
A zipper on a Kelly? How shocking! One might as well draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa. Well, yes, we did: we dared to alter the face of the Kelly by adding zippered exterior pockets in the front. The Kellylakis bag – the Kelly’s “enhanced” version – comes in all sizes, be it itsy-bitsy (15 cm) or fit for the Olympics (50 cm).

2011
Soft-boiled eggs and wicker basket: the Kelly picnic bag was originally intended for country luncheons on freshly-cut lawns. Marvel at the fine basketry and saddle-stitching: a whole strand of wicker is used and the Barenia calfskin is fixed onto the braided wicker structure by a system of lacing and knots. The chic and charming Kelly picnic bag is a witty nod to its cousin the wicker basket.The chic and charming Kelly picnic bag is a witty nod to its cousin the wicker basket.

2018
H for Hermès, a committed defender of the arts and letters with the Kellygraphie bag.
E for exhilarating variation on the alphabet.
R for reunion of colourful, smooth-grained leather pieces, cut and fitted together down to one-tenth of a millimetre, and perfectly regular on the surface.
M for marquetry in leather.
E for exacting technique customised exclusively for the Kelly.
S for saddle-maker.