FLOAT 100 · Handbags · No. 8
Hermes Birkin 30 Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile (non-diamond)
For two years Hermes sold its snow-shaded crocodile Birkin quietly to a handful of top clients; then a designer sent one down the runway, and the 30 cm Himalaya became the bag every collector measures the rest against.
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- current
- Maker
- Hermes
- By price in handbags
- 10 of 100
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- Hermes, Paris
- Model
- Birkin 30, the size in which the Himalaya first appeared
- Debut
- 2008, sold at first only to top collectors
- Leather
- Matte Niloticus (Nile) crocodile, shaded from smoky gray at the edges to pearly white
- Hardware
- Palladium on standard examples; 18k white gold with diamonds on the rarest
- Size
- 30 x 22 x 16 cm
- Share of the market
- Nearly 40 percent of all Himalaya bags sold at auction are Birkin 30s
- Recent prices
- $208,750 for a 2014 example in April 2022; $115,000 for a 2015 example in February 2024, both at auction in Hong Kong
- Diamond versions
- Set handbag auction records in 2016 and 2017
A bag born on a flight
The Birkin dates to 1984, when a chance meeting between Hermes chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas and the actress Jane Birkin turned to her complaint that no handbag was practical enough to carry both her scripts and her young daughter's diapers. Hermes built her one, and the bag carried her name.
Each Birkin is handmade by a single craftsman, typically in French workshops, and takes between 15 and 20 hours. Birkins are made in calfskin, lizard, ostrich and other hides, and the most expensive are crocodile. By 2006 the waiting list reportedly ran up to six years; in April 2010 Hermes said the list would no longer exist.
The bag's ties to crocodile have not been free of controversy. In 2015 animal welfare campaigners denounced crocodile slaughter conditions, and Jane Birkin asked Hermes to take her name off the bag until practices improved. Hermes addressed her concerns and the name stayed.
Snow on the mountain
Himalaya names a color, not a place. Hermes takes Nile crocodile and dyes it so a smoky gray fades into a pearly white, meant to recall snow on the Himalayan peaks. The dyeing is slow and grows harder as the shades lighten; reaching a clean white and a smooth gradation to rocky gray takes great skill. The matte surface is hand-buffed with felt wool, and no two bags are alike.
The idea had a forerunner. From 1994 to 2008 Hermes made Natura Vert Celadon, a shiny ombre alligator in pale green. In 2008, the year the last Celadon bags left the workshops, the matte Himalaya appeared, first in the 30 cm Birkin. Sizes 35 and then 25 (in 2012) followed, and in 2013 the finish came to the Kelly.
At first the 30 cm Himalayas were kept quiet and sold only to top collectors. That changed in 2010, when Jean-Paul Gaultier, then head of Hermes women's ready-to-wear, sent a Himalaya Birkin down the spring runway. From then on it was the bag to have, and it is often called the holy grail of a handbag collection.
The diamond Birkin 30s that set records
The 30 is also the size behind several handbag auction records, all of them for versions with 18k white gold and diamond hardware. In 2016 a diamond Himalaya Birkin 30 sold at auction in Hong Kong for HK$2,320,000, a world record. The next year, on November 29, 2017, another sold in Hong Kong for a new record, making it the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction at the time; the buyer bid by phone.
Accounts of the 2017 figure differ. The selling house's own later history gives HK$2,940,000 for a Birkin 30 set with 10.23 carats of diamonds, and a news report of the sale gives the same HK$2.94 million, about $377,261. A press report on the day gave HK$2.98 million and called the previous year's record HK$2.94 million. This page uses the HK$2,940,000 figure.
Europe followed. In 2018 a Himalaya Birkin 30 with an 18k white gold, diamond-set lock sold in London for GBP 162,500, the most for any handbag at a European auction until a diamond Himalaya Birkin 35 passed it later that year. In 2022 a diamond Himalaya Birkin 30 brought more than $450,000; one account of that year describes the diamond Himalaya Birkin sale as private. Reports at the time said only one or two diamond Himalayas were made each year.
The everyday grail
The standard Himalaya Birkin 30, with palladium hardware, is the one that comes to market most. Nearly 40 percent of all Himalaya bags sold at auction are Birkin 30s, which makes it the reference point for the whole family.
Its prices have moved a long way. In April 2022 a 2014 example sold at auction in Hong Kong for $208,750, well above the roughly $146,500 the model had averaged at auction over the preceding five years. In February 2024 a 2015 example sold in Hong Kong for $115,000. Both bags were older and had recently been serviced at the Hermes spa, so their condition was similar.
Market commentary put the drop down to supply: over those three years more Himalaya Birkin 30s reached the secondary market. In 2024, six Himalaya bags still made the list of the ten most expensive Hermes bags sold at auction, against two in 2023.
How to recognize one
A Birkin 30 measures about 30 cm wide, 22 cm high and 16 cm deep. A Himalaya should show the gray-to-white shading across the matte Niloticus crocodile, darker toward the edges and lighter at the center; because the shading is done by hand, the exact gradient differs from bag to bag.
Standard examples carry palladium hardware and are lined in goatskin, described as tonal chevre on one 2015 example and as gray goatskin with zip and flat pockets on a 2014 example. The 2015 auction example came with a clochette, lock, keys, care booklet, raincoat, dust bag and box.
Crocodile is a restricted species, so a Himalaya travels with paperwork. A 2014 example offered for resale came with its CITES certificate, and auction catalogs flag these bags as subject to CITES import and export rules. Diamond versions are set apart by 18k white gold hardware set with diamonds.
The numbers
- Dimensions
- 30 x 22 x 16 cm
- Material
- Matte Niloticus crocodile in the Himalaya gradient; goatskin lining
- Hardware
- Palladium (standard); 18k white gold and diamonds on diamond versions
- Debut
- 2008, in this size first
- Share of Himalaya auction sales
- Nearly 40 percent
- Five-year auction average to early 2022
- About $146,500
- Production quantity
- Not published; diamond versions reportedly one or two a year
Timeline
Thierry Hermes founds a harness workshop in Paris.
Jean-Louis Dumas meets Jane Birkin, and the Birkin bag is created.
Hermes begins Natura Vert Celadon, a pale green ombre alligator, a forerunner of the Himalaya.
The last Celadon bags are made, and the matte Himalaya debuts on the 30 cm Birkin for top collectors.
Jean-Paul Gaultier sends a Himalaya Birkin down the Hermes spring runway.
Hermes says the Birkin waiting list will no longer exist.
The Himalaya Birkin 25 is released.
The Himalaya finish comes to the Kelly.
A diamond Himalaya Birkin 30 sells in Hong Kong for HK$2,320,000, a world record.
A diamond Himalaya Birkin 30 sells in Hong Kong for a new handbag record.
A Himalaya Birkin 30 with a diamond lock sells in London for GBP 162,500, a European auction record.
A 2014 Himalaya Birkin 30 sells at auction in Hong Kong for $208,750.
A diamond Himalaya Birkin 30 brings more than $450,000.
A 2015 Himalaya Birkin 30 sells at auction in Hong Kong for $115,000.
The world in 2004
Jean-Paul Gaultier becomes head of Hermes women's ready-to-wear, a post he holds until 2011.
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
A magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan, China, kills about 87,500 people.
Beijing hosts the Summer Olympics, the first held in China.
Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt at the height of the global financial crisis.
Barack Obama is elected the 44th president of the United States.
LVMH acquires a stake of about 17 percent in Hermes; the family answers in 2011 with a holding company controlling just over half the shares.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 29, 2017 | $377,261 | Sold at auctionDiamond version: Himalaya Birkin 30 with 10.23 carats of diamonds on white gold hardware, sold in Hong Kong for HK$2,940,000. A press report on the day gave HK$2.98 million. |
| Apr 29, 2022 | $208,750 | Sold at auctionPalladium hardware, made 2014, sold in Hong Kong. Estimate HK$900,000-1,200,000. Also reported as $210,000. |
| Feb 6, 2024 | $115,000 | Sold at auctionPalladium hardware, made 2015, sold in Hong Kong. Estimate HK$600,000-800,000. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Hermes Birkin 30 Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile (non-diamond) is number 10 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (8 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The Himalaya is named for the gradient, not where the crocodile comes from: smoky gray fading to white, like snow on a peak.
- For its first two years the Himalaya Birkin was sold only to top collectors, until a 2010 runway show made it famous.
- Before the Himalaya there was Natura Vert Celadon, a pale green ombre alligator made from 1994 to 2008.
- The Birkin 30 accounts for nearly 40 percent of all Himalaya bags sold at auction.
- Two Himalaya Birkin 30s of similar age and condition sold at auction less than two years apart for $208,750 and $115,000.
- In 2015 Jane Birkin asked Hermes to take her name off the bag over crocodile welfare; it kept the name after Hermes responded.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026