Everything You Need to Know About the Hermès Birkin 30

The Hermès Birkin bag has become a global statement of elegance and status. A bag designed for everyday use, with a hint of sophistication, the Hermès Birkin 30 is a popular choice among buyers who carry a lot of items on a daily basis. The Birkin’s original, practical design still remains to be seen today, thanks to its two rolled handles, flap top and lock closure. 

So, if you’re thinking about buying a Hermès Birkin 30, here’s everything you need to know about this extremely coveted accessory.

“ingrid’s birkin” by Yvette Ilagan is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

A brief history of the Hermès Birkin bag

Not too long ago, in 1983, the chief executive of Hermès at the time, Jean-Louis Dumas sat next to actress Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. On this flight, the handle on Jane Birkin’s wicker bag broke, which meant the entire contents of her bag spilt all over the floor. This inspired Jean-Louis Dumas to create a bag that could do two important things – look stylish and remain closed at the same time. The two ended up in a discussion about the ideal bag. Then, the very first Birkin was drawn up there and then, on the back of an aeroplane sick bag. From then onwards, the Birkin bag was born. 

The Birkin bag didn’t become popular, or exclusive, right away, however by the 1990s the Birkin bag had cemented its place in the handbag world. The Hermès Birkin represented a statement in fashion, as the first bag of its kind. 

What’s so special about the Hermès Birkin 30 bag?

It’s widely known that you can’t just walk into a Hermès shop and expect to come out with a brand new Birkin bag. There is a certain mystery that surrounds this bag. For the lucky few, you might be able to walk into a Hermès shop and grab yourself a Birkin, but for a lot of us, this won’t be the case. Its exclusivity and scarcity are what makes this bag so covetable. People want an item that not many people have, and the Birkin bag is the epitome of this idea.

How much is a new Birkin 30 bag?

The Hermès Birkin bag does hold a pretty steep price tag. However, this price tag does vary depending on a lot of factors, like the size and exclusivity of the bag. An entry-level Birkin bag will set you back around £9,000, and this is even with the most basic hardware. As we’ve just spoken about though, you might struggle to get your hands on a brand new Birkin. Instead, a lot of people choose to buy and sell their Birkin’s to a pre-loved store. Sometimes you can even get your hands on a Hermès Birkin which has been worn once and then been sold. We’d recommended that if you’re desperate to get your hands on a Birkin bag, then looking at the pre-owned market would be a great place to start. 

Which size Hermès bag should I purchase?

The Birkin bag comes in four different sizes, 25, 30, 35 and 40 and its length is measured by how many centimetres long it is across the base. So, as you can probably guess, a Birkin 30 measures 30 centimetres across the base of the bag. The Hermès Birkin 30 is the most popular choice for buyers, as it offers a spacious bag that can carry more than just your daily accessories in – it can even fit a small tablet or iPad in. Inside a Birkin 30 is only one interior pocket, the rest of the bag is just one compartment. 

Is a Birkin 30 a good investment piece?

The luxury resale market has been lucky enough to experience a large growth over the last couple of years. It’s pretty well known that Birkin bags do extremely well on the resale market, thanks to their exclusivity and expensive initial cost. It seems that the worth of a Hermès Birkin bag just seems to be going up and up throughout the years. Between the years 2016 and 2017, the value of Birkins on the resale market had increased by a whopping 16% – that’s more than the Chanel price increase! Additionally, Hermès created fewer Birkin bags over the last few years, which means that there could be a ‘mini Hermès Birkin drought’. We could see the resale price of these bags soaring even higher in the future. 

Is the most expensive Hermès Birkin bag a Birkin 30?

Hermès make their Birkin bags out of a variety of materials; ostrich, lizard, crocodile and alligator. Birkin’s which are made out of exotic materials, like crocodile, tend to be more exclusive and higher in price because of both the rarity of the bag and the materials which go into it. The most expensive Hermès Birkin to ever be sold is made out of niloticus crocodile skin which has been dyed with a white and grey gradient. The Himalayan Birkin is loosely based on the Himalayan mountains, with the white representing the snow on top of them. The Himalayan Birkin which ended up being sold for around £236,000 was actually not a 30 centimetre Birkin, its size was actually 35 centimetres, and was bought by David Oancea in 2019.

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Is the Birkin 30 bag for me?

At this point you might be thinking, well is the Hermès Birkin 30 the right bag for me? Why should I opt for a Birkin instead of the extremely popular Kelly bag? Well, the Birkin bag is a chic tote bag that is designed to be worn in the crook of your arm by the two handles. The Birkin bag is also great if you wear your bags every day and in more casual settings – the Kelly bag tends to be a little dressier. We think the Birkin 30 is the perfect size for everyday use too, it’s not so big that it will weigh you down, but it’s not so small that you struggle to fit anything inside of it.