Power of the Purse. Birkins and Kellys Dominate the Collectible Handbags Category.

For those following the growing auction market for luxury handbags, and wondering what might replace the ever-dominant Hermès Birkin and Kelly styles, experts at Sotheby’s and Christie’s don’t have much news.

“Birkins and Kellys are really sharing the top position in collectors’ hearts,” says Morgane Halimi, global head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s. She points out that in general, every size and style of Birkin and Kelly bags saw increases in average value and client interest. “They are perennial, highly desirable, and have become status symbols. And the Mini Kelly II, which was released in 2016, is slowly becoming a hit even among young collectors.”

Max Brownawell, head of the department for handbags and accessories at Christie’s (where Hermès bags account for 90% of sales) agrees. “Really, the collectible market for bags at this price point of $10,000 and up is exclusively going to be Hermès bags,” he says. “There’s a growing number of vintage Chanel bags that are considered highly collectible and valuable as well—bags that are iconic, such as Karl Lagerfeld designs from the ’90s. But very few bags from other brands hold their value at the level of Hermès.”

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Chanel vintage classics by Lagerfeld in the ’90s are also in high demand at Sotheby’s, where Chanel is the second-best seller. “His earliest bags from the ’80s and ’90s are the most popular of all vintage Chanel bags,” Halimi says.

Even so, those bags don’t breathe the same rarefied air as Hermès. The most expensive Chanel bag to sell at non-charity auction was Lagerfeld’s personal croc-embossed lambskin tote. It was sold complete with his 2011 FIAC contemporary art fair photo pass and a tag from the Chanel Paris-Bombay 2011/12 Métiers d’Art show. Given the illustrious provenance, it broke the record for a Chanel bag, selling for €94,500 (US$107,000) at the Sotheby’s estate auction of his property in December 2021.

Chanel’s top seller of 2024 at Sotheby’s was a gold lambskin Paris-Dubai Nights Gas Jerry Can bag with gold hardware from the 2015 Cruise collection. It was estimated to sell for between $5,000 and $7,000, but went for $33,600, far exceeding expectations.

The Pinnacle Bag 

According to Sotheby’s, all 10 of the most expensive bags sold by the house in 2024 were Birkins or Kellys, and all but one was crafted from exotic crocodile or alligator skin. That lone non-exotic bag, claiming the No. 8 slot with a sale price of about $157,000, was a 2023 Midas Kelly 25 Sellier in black box calfskin leather with 18-karat gold hardware, hence its Midas label. The top spot on the list went to a 2021 Kelly 25 Himalaya with white-gold hardware set with 3.5 carats of diamonds, which sold for about $330,000.

Six of the 10 most expensive bags on the list were Himalaya styles, three of which had diamond-set 18-karat white gold hardware. Himalaya bags are so named for the exotic Nile crocodile that is distinctively dyed with an ombré effect of matte white and gray, evoking the snow-capped peaks of the Asian mountain range. When fitted with precious white-gold or even platinum diamond-set hardware, Himalayas reach record prices.

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Three spots in the top 10 were limited-edition Birkin 20 Faubourg styles in American alligator, two in shades of Snow and one in Midnight black, with prices ranging from $181,000 to $234,000. The first Faubourg Birkins, modeled on the architecture of the Paris flagship on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, debuted in 2019.

At a November 2021 Christie’s Hong Kong sale, a matte-white Himalaya Diamond Retourné Kelly 28, with 18-karat white-gold hardware set with 229 diamonds totaling 9.2 carats, sold for $512,880, cracking the half-million-U.S.-dollar mark and setting the record for the most expensive handbag sold at auction.

The earliest-known Hermès Celadon Himalayas emerged in 1994, and they were phased out of production in 2008. However, that year saw a new 30cm-size matte Himalayan Birkin that remained under the radar and was reserved for the brand’s VIP collectors. Then, Jean-Paul Gaultier featured a Himalaya Birkin at the 2010 Hermès’ spring runway show, making it an instant “grail” bag, and one with surprising longevity.

In 2012, Hermès introduced the 25cm Himalaya Birkin. The following year brought the Himalaya Kelly in more sizes, with a 35cm Himalaya Kelly added to the mix in 2020. Himalaya styles in other collections started appearing in 2016.

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Market Shifts

There are signs that the market for such extravagant bags has reached post-peak prices. “The most interesting trend we’ve seen is that exotic bags, which tend to sell for higher prices, have been a little bit soft,” says Brownawell. He explains that in general, exotics have come down over the last few years, while leather bags are going up steadily: “For certain sizes and styles, the prices for leather bags can sometimes be higher than the equivalent bag in an exotic.”

He attributes this trend to the growing demand for bags priced from $20,000 to $30,000, with huge numbers of buyers aspiring to ownership though they can’t possibly attain the pricier exotic Birkins and Kellys.

“It’s a much thinner market when you’re looking at bags that are in the $50,000-to-$200,000 range, and people who are buying in that higher range have a lot more ability to be picky about what they want,” he says.

The growing numbers of younger clients entering the market each season are unlikely to bid on a six-figure Himalaya Birkin right out of the gate. “They’re going to start out in leather, and they’ll probably want a black, brown, or gray leather Birkin,” Brownawell says. “That’s really where the market has been the strongest—the prices for a store-fresh, neutral-leather Birkin 25 or 30 have never been higher.”

He adds that limited editions are another bright spot—whether it’s new ones that are highly coveted for the first year after release before prices stabilize, or lesser-known vintage special editions. “Some vintage limited editions that haven’t been seen on the market could do extremely well, because I think there is a strong appetite among collectors for what they haven’t seen,” Brownawell says.

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One unexpected twist, he adds, is that some of the priciest Birkins aren’t necessarily the rarest. “If you want a diamond Himalaya Birkin, I can get you one, even two,” Brownawell says. “But there are much rarer bags out there that I probably couldn’t come up with, though it might be a much lower price point.”

At Sotheby’s, where handbags are one of the house’s fastest-growing departments, women buyers account for the majority of auctions worldwide. “We are seeing buyers as young as their 20s, with participants of our handbag auctions, both buyers and sellers, mostly in their 30s and 40s,” Halimi says. “That is significantly younger compared with some other categories sold at Sotheby’s.”

Women also make up the majority of handbag purchasers at Christie’s, where handbags are the only category dominated by female buyers. “It’s mostly women between the ages of 25 and 60,” Brownawell says. “Wealthy women, of all types—whether they are self-made, married well, or born into wealth—are attracted to Hermès bags.”

This article originally appeared in the  February 2025 issue of Mansion Global Experience Luxury.