We all know it’s not easy to get a Hermes bag, much less the Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Birkin 35 with 18K white gold and diamond hardware.
According to the auction house Christie’s website, its name comes from the gradation of the Nile crocodile hide that is used to craft the bag. Utilising a time-consuming and difficult dyeing process, the leather transits from a smoky grey into a pearly white, reminiscent of the snow-capped Himalayas.
Married with the craftsmanship that the luxury house is known for, where an expert craftsman takes up to 40 hours to produce a bag, as well as the precious metals used on the bag, this bag fetched one of highest prices for a handbag ever in 2018 – £236,750 or S$417,365, the price of a five-room HDB flat in Singapore.
And it’s not the only handbag to fetch a high price at Christie’s. The auction house conducts a handbag sale that sees the rich drop a pretty penny on rare bags that they fancy.
So collectors like local socialite Jamie Chua – who owns more than just a few Hermes Birkin bags and recently showed off her pink bag collection on social media – might really be onto something by “investing” in luxury bags.
Here are some of the other expensive handbags that have passed through the hands of the London house.
This article originally appeared in Her World.
