When Jean-Louis Dumas first designed the Birkin—a simple work bag with a gleaming gold clasp and streamlined shape—he couldn’t have known that one day its name would be uttered by fashion hopefuls like a sacred prayer. “When I own a Birkin, I’ll know I’ve made it” has become a mantra for the hyper-ambitious and a North Star for fellow designers who could only dream of such renown.
Four decades after its first stitch was sewn, the Hermès bag is considered the gold standard of luxury fashion. For rival fashion houses, manufacturing the same success has become something of a fixation. Though producing knockoffs has long been considered an act of deep shame, high-end designers have seemingly reframed this thinking. In 2024, many of the industry’s biggest names stopped attempting to create the next It bag and settled for duplicating it.
Recently, Raf Simons, Adrian Appiolaza, and Miuccia Prada have cast their gaze backward, pulling inspiration from the world’s most recognizable handbag—specifically its tell-tale belt detail. Seemingly overnight, every label launched a brand-specific version of the bitchy belted bag in an attempt to plant a flag on their own piece of fashion history.
Attempting to replicate Hermès’s recipe for success, sister brands Prada and Miu Miu showed harnessed styles in their respective spring 2024 shows. The season before, Moschino applied its campy ethos to the trend, wrapping an exaggerated strap around structured, briefcase-inspired bags. At the same time, Toteme was releasing its belted bucket bag, while Tom Ford was busy fastening a Birkin-inspired strap to a simple tote silhouette.
With countless iterations to choose from, even the most loyal Birkinists are abandoning their beloved bag for new equivalents. Shortly after going viral for her assortment of Hermès bag charms, Dua Lipa traded up with Prada’s $6,000 buckle bag. Saint Laurent tapped supermodel Kate Moss to be the face of its Manhattan bag relaunch—which inspired Hailey Bieber to abandon her own purse collection for a full calendar month.
Elsa Hosk is another shining example of this phenomenon. The model owns dozens of Hermès bags yet continually shelves them on behalf of Manu Atelier’s Le Cambon 40, a spacious suede style that Katie Holmes has also adopted as her emotional-support tote. For the brand’s creative directors, sisters Beste Manastir Bagdatli and Merve Manastir, the $910 Birkin look-alike is a golden ticket that skyrocketed them to celeb status. “We wanted to create a bag that embodied this sense of heritage,” the pair told Vogue. “It’s been incredible to see [Holmes] wear it almost daily.”
This embellishment has been so successful that the Turkish label started affixing hardware to their footwear offerings as well. The duo believes it’s the “fusion of old-world charm and modern-day practicality” that draws in shoppers—including Taylor Swift, Kate Middleton, and Zoey Deutch—like moths to a flame. “Our belted buckle has been one of our signature details for quite a while now,” they said. “We were probably the very first ones [on] the belted-bag trend.”
The Birkin’s draw lies not only in its outlandish price point but also in its exclusivity. Most people can’t afford one, and even those who can might not be able to secure their design of choice. In this way, Manu Atelier and other brands like them provide a more democratic system for attaining the hero piece. Of course, $910 is no small price to pay—but it’s a whole lot more attainable than, say, Jennifer Lopez’s $200,000 Himalayan Birkin.
Thus far, the great Birkinfication seems to be a lucrative business strategy, even for low-end retailers. At the end of 2024, Walmart went viral for its Birkin doppelganger—which the internet facetiously dubbed the Wirkin—selling out the $80 handbag immediately. Meanwhile, the most sought-after collaboration of the last year came when Tibi added a men’s belt to L.L.Bean’s $40 Boat and Tote and raised the price tenfold.
Likewise, luxury department stores are seeing new interest for buckled styles directly reminiscent of Jane Birkin’s famous bag. “Belted bags are a huge trend, especially in an elevated tote or satchel shapes,” says Marissa Galante Frank, fashion director of accessories and beauty at Bloomingdale’s. “The pace at which trends have been moving can be exhausting, and customers are looking to invest in timeless pieces they can wear season after season.”
As a result, the retailer is now launching new belted-bag styles across all price points in order to meet demand. “DeMellier’s New York tote bag has been wildly popular,” Galante Frank says. “We have customers asking for DeMellier’s bags by name, and we continue to expand the assortment with different colours, textures, and sizes. It is practical enough for the office but sophisticated enough to wear out to dinner.”
The fabled bag has become fashion’s great unifier, transcending mere status symbol to become a yardstick for success. It’s the ultimate aspiration for billionaires and middle-class fashionistas alike who hope to one day claim one as their own. Until that day comes, however, these more affordable contemporaries exist to make that validation feel just a little bit more within reach.
This story was originally published on Vogue.com.
