Jane Birkin's original Hermès bag sells for £7m at Sotheby's auction

The prototype of the most famous bag in fashion, made for Jane Birkin in 1985, smashes auction records.

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The black leather bag was made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her belongings while sitting next to the boss of luxury fashion house Hermès on a flight.

She asked why they didn't make bigger bags, so he sketched out the design for a new, more practical but still highly desirable item on the aeroplane's sick bag.

The prototype he made was sold to a private collector from Japan at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday, far surpassing the €439,000 (£378,000; $513,000) previous record sale.

The auction house said there was an "electrifying" 10-minute bidding war between "nine determined collectors".