The first Birkin handbag has sold for a record €8.6m (£7.4m) at a Paris auction on Thursday, making it the most expensive fashion accessory ever sold at auction in Europe. The Birkin bag is a symbol of luxury that was born from a chance encounter between the singer and actor Jane Birkin and the former Hermès boss Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight in the 1980s. They got talking after she spilled some of her things on the cabin floor and Birkin sketched her ideal handbag on a vomit bag