
Olivia Palermo with her Black 35cm Birkin
Sightings of the Famous Birkin Bag and anything Hermès. Drop me a line at birkinwatcher@gmail.com.

Actress and Singer Jane Birkin (who we owe the bag's name to) with Black Birkin 35cm, Palladium Hardware . Press accounts of the bag's genesis differ in details. Birkin told noted fashion writer Dana Thomas that while seated next to Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas in 1984 on a Paris to London flight, she opened her Hermès-made datebook and a flurry of loose notes fell to the floor. Dumas took her datebook and returned it a few weeks later with a pocket sewn into the back (which has since become standard). Birkin went on to discuss with Dumas her difficulty in finding a leather weekend bag and at his prompting, described her ideal. Shortly thereafter, the bag she described arrived at her flat with a note from Dumas.