TikTok video 'Handmaking A Birkin For My Girlfriend' goes viral

Alexander Sway spent $60 on leather and $340 on tools to replicate one of the world’s most famous handbags, which usually cost $110,000

Washington estate agent Alexander Sway spent 60 hours and $400 recreating a Hermes Birkin bag. Photo: Alexander Sway / TikTok

A video posted on TikTok showing a man making a replica of a Hermes Birkin bag to give to his girlfriend as an anniversary present, after he realised he couldn’t afford a real one, has gone viral.

In two videos, titled Handmaking A Birkin For My Girlfriend, which have been viewed more than 36 million times and counting, Washington estate agent Alexander Sway, 32, documents how he made his partner a home-made version of the celebrity-loved bag using templates he found online and leather from a local store.

“My girlfriend always jokes that she wants a luxury bag from Hermes as an anniversary gift,” he said in the first video. “When I looked online at the price of a Birkin, I couldn’t believe it. $100,000 for a bag is crazy, but what was even crazier was instead of paying, I decided to surprise her and make my own.”

‘I understand why luxury companies charge so much’

Saying that he thought making the bag was “going to be pretty simple”, Sway spent 60 hours putting together the gift using blueprints he found online.

He bought the materials from a local leather store, spending $60 on a sheet of black-dyed crocodile leather after admitting he “was not able to find leather that luxury companies use”, and $360 on tools.

“I thought it was going to be as simple as cutting shapes out and assembling pieces, but right off the bat I made some rookie mistakes and wasted a bunch of good leather,” Sway said. “I finally understand why luxury companies charge so much for these handbags.”

Sway said the hardest part of making the bag was the sewing.

“This is very challenging,” he said, “because every hole had to be hand-punched and sometimes the holes had to be punched twice because of how thick the leather was.” He said his fingers went numb during the process.

What is a Birkin bag?

The bag by luxury label Hermes made its debut in 1984 and was inspired by English-French actress and singer Jane Birkin.

It was conceived after Hermes chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas sat beside Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. The actress’s straw bag wouldn't fit in the overhead locker and she told Dumas she couldn’t find a leather weekend bag to hold all her belongings.

Dumas decided to create a black leather bag based on the label’s Haut a Courroies bag from the early 1900s.

The bags start from $9,000 and regularly go for more than $300,000 at auction. In 2022, Sotheby’s sold the most expensive Birkin ever at auction. The Diamond Himalaya Birkin 30, made from dyed Niloticus crocodile skin and featuring 18k white gold and diamond-studded hardware, sold for more than $450,000.

Sway’s work went viral, not only for his dedication and craftsmanship, but also for his girlfriend’s reaction to the gift, which many viewers found underwhelming, especially when she fumbled with the bag, almost dropping it.

Sway later told BuzzFeed: “Although the video did not do a great job representing my girlfriend, she actually loves the bag and appreciates it deeply.”