Bag Lady: Jane Birkin Explains The Birkin

"I was on an airplane when a plastic bag holding all my things broke and everything fell out -- my date book, papers, everything. Just as I was saying how I wish Hermes would make a bag that could fit all my things, the man sitting next to me happened to work for Hermes -- it was Jean-Louis Dumas, the head designer! They already had the Kelly bag, named after Grace Kelly, so he began work on the Birkin bag. I went down to the atelier, and he had made it in cardboard. And we talked about it, and I said they should make some changes, like making pockets bigger. And that's how it was made."

-Jane Birkin on the genesis of the Hermes Birkin bag.