Could that designer bag be worth more than its weight in gold?

With a Hermès Birkin selling for €184,000 at Christie’s, Paula Burns discovers that buying a designer bag could be worth more than its weight in gold.

As people become more aware of the waste involved in fast fashion it seems that choosing designer pieces could also be a sound investment for your pocket.

If the recent auction at Christie’s auction house in London is anything to go by then designer bags, or “wearable works of art” as the auction house has deemed them, are the new must-haves in investment buys.

When it comes to fashion, frivolous is not a dirty word though auctions like this are having a profound effect on the landscape. The shallow waters of a fashion world seen only to be obsessed with a series of flippant trends is being propelled to the credible rankings of art.

Nobody would question an art fiend’s collection of Picassos and Monets and soon a Birkin or Chanel 2.55 may be seen holding their own amongst the great artists.

This new-found respect for the worth of designer pieces comes in the form of a 2008 Hermès Himalaya Niloticus Birkin bag.

Made of Nile crocodile skin and featuring a diamond-encrusted 18-carat white gold lock, the bag sold for a whopping €184,000 in June at Christie’s auction house in London, breaking the European record for the most valuable bag sold at auction.

For some this is the price of a house, maybe not in Ireland thanks to our property situation but it would definitely get you nicely on the ladder. But this isn’t the first time a Hermès Birkin has sold for six figures.

In 2017 the world record for a bag sold at auction was set in Hong Kong when a Birkin sold for €288,283. With research showing that rare Birkin’s have averaged a 14.2% annual return over the past decade, beating the price of gold, should we be looking to our closets for investment rather than the old reliables of property and art?

Andy Warhol is revered for being a leading figure of pop art. Through his images he brought pop culture to the fore, creating iconic images from the mundane.

Connecting the brilliance of art with that of fashion can seem like a challenge. It opens up the question of what is it that contributes to the allure of the Birkin? In some sense, it’s very similar to that of pop art.

Designer bags are deeply connected to our popular culture, their iconography connects with the people on the street, even if they aren’t accessible to us all. Just as the bag’s namesake has done for more than four decades.

The Birkin was designed for and named after the magnetic singer, actress, and style icon, Jane Birkin. It was on a flight to Paris, when Birkin was laden down with an over-spilling tote, that serendipity would step in.

It so happened that she was seated next to the chief executive of Hermès who offered to design a holdall suitable to travel. According to Birkin, the design was scribbled on a sick-bag and so the most coveted bag in the world was conceived. This was 1983, though it wouldn’t be until the mid-nineties that the Hermès Birkin would become synonymous with the ‘It-Bag’ era.

Just like Warhol’s factory the Hermès Birkin found itself the centre of celebrity attention. It had taken almost 20 years for the Birkin to really get its coveted groove on and it hasn’t looked back since.

The celebrity stamp of approval was all it needed to ensure its place in the hall of designer bag fame — with celebs like Victoria Beckham hoarding a collection of over a hundred Birkins to Lady Gaga’s sketch pad version confirming its place as a must-have.

According to Personal Shopper at Brown Thomas Cork, Fiona Lemasney, when it comes to designer bags, it’s all about this type of aspiration.

“The Birkin is one of those fashion pieces that no matter where you are in the world, be it a busy Oxford Street, it will stand out. It strikes you. Along with beautiful French and Italian leathers it makes you aspire to owning one.”

It’s not only the beauty of the design of the bag that allows it to stand out from the crowd. When talking to Fiona the constant theme that lies beneath the charm of the Birkin is aspiration.

Aspiration to own a one-of-a-kind piece.

“Each Birkin is unique. This isn’t a bag that you can buy off the shelf. There is a waiting list as each bag is made individually according to the customer,” explains Fiona.

“The client gets to choose every detail of the bag, from the colour to the type of leather with choices including crocodile skin. Each bag can also be individually accessorised as seen with the one sold at Christie’s. Also, every bag is numbered so there will always be a record of the original owner. It’s these distinctive elements that make the Birkin so sought after.”

Not all of us are lucky enough to be privy to buying a bag with a price tag in the region of €10,000 plus, even if it does guarantee a substantial return on our investment. Though starting out small could be the way to gliding up the runway of a designer bag collection.

“It is worth investing in designer bags, even at the lower level,” says Fiona.

“These aren’t fast fashion and so the designs don’t date. If you look at labels like Mulberry they are iconic in their own right. Here the Bayswater just get better with age and so you get more for your investment instead of buying into fast fashion.”

Another favourite of Fiona’s is the Saint Laurent cross body Monogram — probably one of the most Instagrammed bags of the past few seasons, being a definite winner with the blogger tribe.

“It has the look and feel of a Chanel yet is discernibly younger. I love the soft leather matched with a cross body style. This bag is a perfect entry point to the designer bag market especially for the younger buyer,” says Fiona.

Who knew buying designer could be worth more than its weight in gold?