Jane Birkin: Decades of Effortless Elegance

There are few things more tedious than the term "fashion icon", but that doesn't mean there aren't people who definitely define the styles for their time. Jane Birkin was one of them.

To some extent, this does an injustice to the French-British actress and singer - who died aged 76 from undisclosed causes Sunday in Paris - that she is widely known for the luxury Hermès handbag she inspired and which bears her name. The influence of Ms Birkin, who modeling agent Paul Rowland called an "eternal muse" on Instagram, was much broader, extending beyond clothes. She proved without a doubt that the best style begins with attitude.

Chic may be "nothing", as a Observed opera director and set designer Patrick Kinmonth, "but that's the just nothing. From the earliest days of her fame as the muse and wife of musical artist Serge Gainsbourg, Mrs. Birkin was always dressed in exactly the right nothing.

"She created an example of style for a generation of women," designer Anna Sui said Sunday, taking stock of the elements that contributed to the chic childish beauty.

There were the shrunken T-shirts, cut-off jeans and sneakers that she preferred. There were the babydoll dresses that few others that actress Mia Farrow wore with more gusto. There were the striped Breton jumpers that she helped popularize. There was the crocheted dress with sheer daisies that she once wore to a union gala. of French arts, one whose plunging neckline was strategically, if barely, fastened with a brooch. There was the ragged bangs she's maintained all her life that looked like she'd cut them herself with cuticle scissors.

"Her style was very different from the American style," Ms. Sui said, and it introduced "something new to our fashion vocabulary." What exactly was this style, the designer was asked? "There was something British about it, that slightly wrinkled English look but fused with classic French codes," she said.

Maybe, au Ultimately, the Hermès Birkin bag provides the best example. Prior to her invention, Ms. Birkin was often pictured carrying a straw basket filled with make-up, keys and assorted accessories. "I was well known for carrying a basket," she explained in a 2018 interview on YouTube. "So I obviously knew that girls liked to have heaps of things in their purses."

It was her bulky basket and overflowing contents that held her back. attention of Jean-Louis Dumas, the managing director of Hermès, during a Paris-London flight and inspired him to create a holdall roomy enough for all his belongings. "I would have loved to be some kind of neat person and wear a Kelly," Ms Birkin explained, referring to a square-style handbag created and named for movie star Grace Kelly. "But I never thought you could get enough."

The satchel-style Birkin, in soft leather, was based on an earlier model, the Haut à Courroies, created by Hermès around 1900. With its looped handles, fastened with a strap closure anchored to a large piece of hardware (and usually left unlocked to display the Hermès logo), the bag became a globally recognized emblem of status and wealth. With a base price of over $10,000, Birkins remain endlessly coveted and customizable (a Diamond Himalayan version became the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction when Sotheby's sold it in 2022 for over $450,000). $) and are worn and collected by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, whose handbag closets constitute a subset of online fashion pornography, as well as Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B.

Ms. Birkin herself preferred a simple leather model and, in her typically bohemian, casual fashion, decorated it with charms, worry beads, keys and even her wristwatch. and why people are still so obsessed with her,” Ms Sui said, referring to the images flooding Instagram immediately after the news of Ms Birkin’s death, “is that everything is so corporate now in fashion, so too intentional and programmed, and she wasn't like that at all. »

Once asked by a reporter if she had been 'compensated' by the luxury goods maker for her eponymous handbags, Ms. Birkin replied briskly . "Certainly," she said, "but I only have one to...