Written by The Strategy

Here’s a thing you probably didn’t know was a thing: defacing the Birkin bag. Yeah thats right. Defacing. As in taking paint, scissors, markers, etc to the beloved Birkin.

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, do you want to know who supports this odd tradition? None other than Jane Birkin herself. A fan of putting her own additions on her namesake bag, Ms Birkin has even defaced one of her bags as a way to raise money for charity.

In order to bring light to this trend that’s gone under the radar (or rather has been pushed under the radar by the scaredy cats) we wanted to highlight some of the best of the defaced Hermes classic. 

Starting with the obvious, Jane Birkin has done the classiest job of defacing her own bag. What you can’t see in the picture is that she’s written all over the inside with white paint. How’s that for rebellion?

The runner up is Nicola Formichetti, who took to his Birkin with permanent markers. Somehow, the designs he’s drawn tone down the turquoise blue of the bag. We don’t know how that works, but the bag has become even better, dare we say. 

Next on the Birkin block we have NeNe Leakes, who famously defaced her bag for charity much like Jane. Met with more criticism than anything else, NeNe stuck to her guns and we get it! It’s a thing, people!

Another defaced Birkin who got disappointed head shakes is Kim Kardashian’s bag gifted to her from Kanye. Sure, it’s a bit bizarre with the nudity, the monsters, and the giant size of the bag, but it’s art. Right?

Okay, the list is over. You can un-clutch your pearls now.

Written by Katrina Garofalo