The most expensive bag in the world was sent down the runway during Rabanne’s spring/summer 2025 Paris Fashion Week presentation on September 25.
During the show, the French fashion house, founded in 1966, paid homage to the late style icon and singer Françoise Madeleine Hardy by showing her treasured 18-karat gold Nano bag as part of this season’s ready-to-wear collection.
In 1969, Paco Rabanne made the famed French singer, who recently passed away in June, her own Nano disc shoulder bag. The storied Maison spent 100 hours working on the bag alongside Arthus Bertrand, a French artisan jeweler.
Creative director Julien Dossena honored Hardy’s exclusive chainmail memento by pairing it with a shimmery gold, low-cut mini dress, metallic pointed-toe heels, and a pendant necklace in the new collection.
Priced at $279,000 or €250,000, the square-shaped bag is costly, with a price higher than any bag currently on the market, even the Hermès Birkin.
Birkin bags typically cost anywhere between $17,000 and $200,000, depending on the size and year it was made.
According to Sotheby’s, the most expensive bag ever sold was the Diamond Himalaya Birkin 30. The valuable pick, embellished with 18-karat white gold hardware and white diamonds, went for $450,000 in 2022. The year prior, the Diamond Himalaya Birkin 25 sold for $300,000.
Usually, Sotheby’s will price second-hand, vintage diamond Birkin bags between $100,000 to $200,000. However, according to Women’s Wear Daily, Hardy’s bag currently takes the top spot as the “most expensive in the world.”
Rabanne and Hardy worked closely with each other over the years as the couturier saw the beautiful model as his muse and an influential figure to promote his inventive designs.
With an architecture background, Rabanne was viewed as an avant-garde designer of his time, materializing design concepts in unusual materials like metals, paper clips, and aluminum foil, as if he were designing enlarged jewelry coverings for the body.
Dossena drew inspiration from a significant moment from Maison Rabanne’s past when Hardy was photographed in a dress constructed from 1,000 tiles and 300 diamonds.
The 42-year-old designer and 2014 LVMH prize finalist compared Hardy’s look to a “precious treasure,” explaining how she’d climbed out of an armored truck surrounded by security like an artifact being transported inside a museum.
Hardy passed away in June 2024 at age 80. The “Mon Amie La Rose” vocalist suffered from laryngeal cancer.
The 1969 Nano bag, along with a handcrafted 1969 Ceramic bag, made from Astier de Villatte’s discs, and a 1969 Glass bag, made from Murano glass, will be available to order at the Rabanne boutique.