When Jean-Louis Dumas first designed the Birkin—a simple work bag with a gleaming gold clasp and streamlined shape—he couldn’t have known that one day its name would be uttered by fashion hopefuls like a sacred prayer. “When I own a Birkin, I’ll know I’ve made it” has become a mantra for the hyper-ambitious and a North Star for fellow designers who could only dream of such renown.
Four decades after its first stitch was sewn, the Hermès bag is considered the gold standard of luxury fashion. For rival fashion houses, manufacturing the same success has become something of a fixation. Though producing knockoffs has long been considered an act of deep shame, high-end designers have seemingly reframed this thinking. In 2024, many of the industry’s biggest names stopped attempting to create the next It bag and settled for duplicating it.
Recently, Raf Simons, Adrian Appiolaza, and Miuccia Prada have cast their gaze backward, pulling inspiration from the world’s most recognizable handbag—specifically its telltale belt detail. Seemingly overnight, every label launched a brand-specific version of the bitchy belted bag in an attempt to plant a flag on their own piece of fashion history.
Attempting to replicate Hermès’s recipe for success, sister brands Prada and Miu Miu showed harnessed styles in their respective spring 2024 shows. The season before, Moschino applied its campy ethos to the trend, wrapping an exaggerated strap around structured, briefcase-inspired bags. At the same time, Toteme was releasing its belted bucket bag, while Tom Ford was busy fastening a Birkin-inspired strap to a simple tote silhouette.
With countless iterations to choose from, even the most loyal Birkinists are abandoning their beloved bag for 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 inspired Hailey Bieber to abandon her own purse collection for a full calendar month.
Elsa Hosk is another shining example of this phenomenon. The model owns dozens of Hermès bags yet continually shelves them on behalf of Manu Atelier’s Le Cambon 40, a spacious suede style that Katie Holmes has also adopted as her emotional-support tote. For the brand’s creative directors, sisters Beste Manastir Bagdatli and Merve Manastir, the $910 Birkin look-alike is a golden ticket that skyrocketed them to celeb status. “We wanted to create a bag that embodied this sense of heritage,” the pair told Vogue. “It’s been incredible to see [Holmes] wear it almost daily.”
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