If you thought the Himalaya Birkin is the rarest bag on Earth, think again. The prototype of the now-iconic Hermès purse, custom-made for its namesake, Jane Birkin , is up for auction for the first time in 25 years, hitting the Sotheby’s block on July 10.

The Birkin was created especially for the on-the-go actor and singer in 1984, after she told Jean-Louis Dumas that she needed a bag that accommodated her hectic everyday life. “I think I drew it on the sick bag—or the not-be-sick bag. And [Dumas] said ‘I’ll make it for you’,” Birkin told Vogue from the front row of Hermès’s fall 2012 show.

Birkin, who died in 2023 , donated the original purse in 1994 to benefit the French AIDS charity, Association Solidarité Sida. It was purchased again in 2000 by Catherine Benier, a Paris-b

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