When Jean-Louis Dumas first designed the Birkin—a easy work bag with a gleaming gold clasp and streamlined form—he couldn’t have recognized that someday its identify can be uttered by style hopefuls like a sacred prayer. “Once I personal a Birkin, I’ll know I’ve made it” has grow to be a mantra for the hyper-ambitious and a North Star for fellow designers who might solely dream of such renown.
4 many years after its first sew was sewn, the Hermès bag is taken into account the gold customary of luxurious style. For rival style homes, manufacturing the identical success has grow to be one thing of a fixation. Although producing knockoffs has lengthy been thought-about an act of deep disgrace, high-end designers have seemingly reframed this considering. In 2024, lots of the business’s greatest names stopped trying to create the subsequent It bag and settled for duplicating it.
Lately, Raf Simons, Adrian Appiolaza, and Miuccia Prada have forged their gaze backward, pulling inspiration from the world’s most recognizable purse—particularly its telltale belt element. Seemingly in a single day, each label launched a brand-specific model of the bitchy belted bag in an try to plant a flag on their very own piece of style historical past.
Making an attempt to duplicate Hermès’s recipe for achievement, sister manufacturers Prada and Miu Miu confirmed harnessed kinds of their respective spring 2024 reveals. The season earlier than, Moschino utilized its campy ethos to the pattern, wrapping an exaggerated strap round structured, briefcase-inspired baggage. On the similar time, Toteme was releasing its belted bucket bag, whereas Tom Ford was busy fastening a Birkin-inspired strap to a easy tote silhouette.
With numerous iterations to select from, even essentially the most loyal Birkinists are abandoning their beloved bag for brand 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 impressed Hailey Bieber to desert her personal purse assortment for a full calendar month.
Elsa Hosk is one other shining instance of this phenomenon. The mannequin owns dozens of Hermès baggage but regularly cabinets them on behalf of Manu Atelier’s Le Cambon 40, a spacious suede fashion that Katie Holmes has additionally adopted as her emotional-support tote. For the model’s inventive administrators, sisters Beste Manastir Bagdatli and Merve Manastir, the $910 Birkin look-alike is a golden ticket that skyrocketed them to celeb standing. “We wished to create a bag that embodied this sense of heritage,” the pair instructed Vogue. “It’s been unimaginable to see [Holmes] put on it virtually every day.”
