2 min.
Charms, Chains, and Tchotchkes
WHEN JANE BIRKIN—the late actor who inspired the Hermès Birkin—carried her namesake bag, she made it even more her own by embellishing it with a motley gaggle of adornments: charms, key chains, prayer beads, stickers, bits of ribbon, luggage tags. The Birkin is widely considered the world’s most difficult handbag to procure. The opportunity to buy one at retail, for upwards of $10,000, is offered only to the French house’s most valued customers; on the secondary market, some Birkins have been known to fetch more than $450,000. But Jane Birkin’s daring, haphazard styling knocked the ultimate It bag off its pedestal and made it lived-in, well-loved, real. That’s the tack we here at GQ advise you take with all bags, be it the hottest designer crossbody or a workaday nylon…
