Are TikTok Influencers Mainstreaming the Birkin?

These days, for better or for worse, luxury accessories are to twentysomething influencers what stuffed animals are to toddlers — items to collect. And, like the plushie toys, the goods — bags, belts, shoes and sunglasses — make for an impressive show-and-tell.

The latest “It” accessory to be touted by the upper echelons of TikTok: an Hermès Birkin.

The $10,000 to $300,000 bag (depending on the size, model and year) is being snapped up by social media creators now more than ever.

An early trendsetter, Alix Earle soft-launched her Birkin back in January, subsequently sharing an unfiltered, anti-aesthetic “what’s in my bag” video to which commenters likened her to the original muse, Jane Birkin. In March, influencer Danielle Pheloung posted her own unboxing of a brown “Birkin 25” after securing a sought-after appointment at Hermès in Paris. And in the last week, four additional New York City influencers have joined the entrants, buying Birkins of their own, with one girl purchasing not one but two in Japan.

The recent proliferation of young — mainly Gen Z — Hermès Birkin owners raises question: Are influencers normalizing the ever-elusive, high-valued accessory? To answer this, we must first go back.

It all started on a 1983 Air France flight, when Jane Birkin spilled the contents of her bag onto the passenger next to her who happened to be none other than Jean-Louis Dumas, the former chief executive officer of Hermès. The accident prompted Birkin to point out the gaps in Hermès’ assortment at the time, to which Dumas suggested she sketch her ideal handbag. Two years later, with the go-ahead from Birkin, the bag went into production under her moniker (the original carryall wound up selling for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s in Paris last year).

At the time of its launch, the consumer was “a select group,” explained Wendy Liebmann, chief executive officer and chief shopper at WSL Strategic Retail. “You had to have the money and have the patience,” she said. “It tended to be, not necessarily age defined, but more income defined.

“The people who tended to have them are people you’re looking to aspire to, those are people that you look to, whether because of their wealth or their social position or their fashion position,” Liebmann continued. “Anything that’s at that level of luxe, part of the reason is not just the price, but the rarity of it, so, that became and still is very much a sign of being in a very select club.”

As the generations have evolved, Liebmann continued, its status mark has remained. Now it’s just “the symbol for the influencer generation on whether, whoever they are, if they can afford it or find it,” she said, noting that the seeming uptick in availability today is a result of market disrupters. “There’s certainly a community, whether it’s older people, or people who just have a financial need, who financially want to get some money out of their Birkins and are willing to resell it.”

In addition to resale sites like The Real Real and eBay, the Kardashians, a family inundated with Hermès (cue Kylie Jenner’s photoshoot in front of her color-coded wall of Birkins here), have been known to list the handbag in varying models on their own platform, Kardashian Kloset. Vivrelle, the members-only designer rental club, also just announced a new invite-only program, in which existing members can rent a Birkin for $800 a month.

So, yes, the seller channels have expanded since the bag was first introduced, but the value — quality and cost included — hasn’t dipped. And if anything, the burgeoning business of dupes has upped the desirability of the real thing.

“That sense of rarity gets played up more and more in a world where you know you can find the real thing, the knockoff thing, at virtually any price point,” Liebmann said. “I think that’s what makes it even of greater value today to people who may have been too young to to have been part of the original movement. Having that badge of honor is something that has become even greater interest to younger affluent or less affluent, but influencer people.”

Piggy-backing off that point, Jo Wang, the chief revenue officer at AI commerce platform Pop.Store, told WWD that the cohort of creators who’ve bought the Birkin recently aren’t downplaying — nor cheapening — the worth. “The hunt, the relationships, the unspoken rules, creators aren’t shortcutting any of that,” Wang said. “They’re decoding it in real time for their audiences, and those audiences are leaning in because the mystery still holds. If anything, it’s just being examined more closely now.

“Social media didn’t flatten the Birkin,” Wang continued. “The hunt is still very much alive; it’s just louder now. And that noise doubles as free marketing for a brand that has never needed to spend a dollar on it.”