Pre-Owned Hermes Birkin And Kelly: Sizes, Leathers and Closures

The Birkin bag started on a plane. In 1984 Jane Birkin sat next to Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London and told him she could not find a bag that suited her life as a young mother. He sketched a supple, roomy holdall, and the prototype was presented to her that year under her name. Christie's notes that the design is close to the 1892 Haut à Courroies cut down by about 15 centimetres, which is why the taller Haut à Courroies Birkin 40 here looks like its parent.

 

I choose a Birkin by one number first, its width in centimetres. A 25 sits close under the arm, a 30 is the everyday size, and a 35 or 40 is a day bag that gets heavy once it is full. This grid runs from the Swift 25 in Sesame up to the Togo 40 in Bleu Royal.

 

Leather comes second. Grained Togo and Clemence hide scratches, while embossed Epsom is stiffer, so the Epsom 25 in Rouge Casaque keeps a crisper shape. Swift holds colour well but marks sooner. Box calf, on the Noir 30, is one of the oldest Hermès leathers and scratches before it patinas, and the Barenia 35 in Fauve is a saddle leather that darkens as it is handled. Ardennes, on the 1996 Birkin 35, is no longer made, and the ostrich 30 is the exotic of the group.

 

My test for a pre-owned Birkin is the corners and the handles, which say more about its life than a condition grade. What I would skip is a pale smooth leather as a first Birkin, since light Swift or box calf shows every mark.

The Kelly is the older bag by about fifty years. Hermès made it in the 1930s as the Sac à dépêches, and costume designer Edith Head chose Hermès pieces for Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. In 1956, by then Princess of Monaco, Kelly was photographed holding the bag in front of her to hide an early pregnancy. The pictures ran in Life, and Hermès renamed the bag the Kelly in 1977.

 

I think of the Kelly as two bags. Sellier is rigid with the seams on the outside, so it keeps sharp edges for years, while Retourné is stitched inside out and turned for a softer bag with rounder corners. The black Epsom Kelly 28 Sellier and the vintage box calf Kelly 35 Sellier show the formal version, and the Clemence 28 Retourné bags in Etain and Gris Meyer show how much a grained leather relaxes.

 

The Mini Kelly II 20s are the smallest structured bags here, the Kelly Pochette is a clutch with the same lock, and the So Kelly is a soft shoulder bag that keeps little but the closure. The Courchevel Kelly 32 in Rouge Vif is in a leather Hermès replaced with Epsom in 2004, and the alligator Kelly 20 Sellier needs regular conditioning and cannot be repaired invisibly if a scale lifts.

 

For a first Kelly I would pick a Sellier 25 or 28 in a grained or embossed calfskin like Togo or Epsom. What I would skip is a Retourné in a very soft leather if structure is the reason you want a Kelly, because that bag is meant to slouch.

If I were buying one bag to use every day, I would buy the Birkin bag. Two handles, an open top and a grained leather in a 30 is the most practical setup, and it is the one you will reach for. I would buy the Kelly for the more formal object, and I would choose Sellier over Retourné if a crisp shape is the reason I wanted it.

 

On both, leather, size and hardware shape the bag far more than a small scuff does, so a lower condition grade on a Togo or Clemence bag is often a fair trade and not a warning. I would leave the exotics to people ready to look after them, since they need the most care and have the least forgiving repair path. Decide what you need to carry before you decide which name you want, because the size number changes how the bag lives with you every day. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Hermès Belts and Hermès Birkin Bag Dupe.