All about Jane Birkin, the late fashion icon who inspired Herms' Birkin bag

Publish date: 2024-07-04

Jane Birkin, namesake of the iconic Hermès Birkin bag and muse of the noted French singer Serge Gainsbourg, has passed away at 76. Credited with redefining Parisian style in the 1970s, the Britain-born actress and singer is best remembered for her sensual 1969 duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, her contribution to European cinema, and her alluring voice which captivated the French nation.

Her death was confirmed by President Emmanuel Macron, who called her “a French icon” in a message on Twitter. The French news media, LeParisien, reported that Ms. Birkin had been found dead at her home but that the cause was not immediately known. She is survived by her two daughters — Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, whom she had with Gainsbourg and director Jacques Doillon respectively. Birkin’s other daughter, Kate Barry, a photographer, died at 46 in 2013 in a fall from a window of her fourth-floor Paris apartment.

Jane Birkin: A look at her legacy

Born in London in December 1946 to Judy Campbell, an actress who gained renown for performing for British troops during World War II, and Commander David Birkin of the Royal Navy, Jane Mallory Birkin found fame — and a lifelong home — in France after moving to Paris to work on the debut movie Slogan. It was here that she met Mr. Gainsbourg and started a tumultuous, public relationship that would survive longer than a decade and catapult her to international recognition. When she began her courtship, her divorce from British composer John Barry behind her, Birkin did not have many prospects to remain in Paris. A chance encounter with the French director Jacques Deray won her a casting in his movie and allowed her to stay in the country.

The movie that kept her in Paris was La Piscine (“The Swimming Pool”), starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. A sun-soaked film about sex and jealousy with multiple sequences of scantily clad actors, the movie proved to be an effective showcase for Ms. Birkin’s lithe beauty. At 20, Ms. Birkin appeared in the erotic hit movie, Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and portraying the story of a London-based fashion photographer. She played a fashion model — the credits of which listed her as only The Blonde — and gained some attention for a risqué nude scene.

Her romance with Mr. Gainsbourg captivated the French public. Their relationship lasted for 11 years, ending when she left him in the early 1980s for the French director, Doillon. Gainsbourg died in 1991 at 62. Although Jane would go on to reflect more candidly about her courtship in later years, she was labeled as “the keeper of the Gainsbourg flame” by The New York Times in 2018.

Her musical career

The most notable product of Birkin and Gainsbourg’s romantic relationship was their suggestive 1969 hit, “Je t’aime… moi non plus” (“I Love You… Me Neither”). In the duet, Mr. Gainsbourg speaks of intimacy in a low, conversational voice as Ms. Birkin confesses her love through murmurs and moans. The song was condemned by the Vatican and banned in several countries as well as by the BBC television network. However, it sold millions of copies, worldwide.

“I would have thought that he was probably France’s most modern writer,” she told NYT in the same profile of her relationship. “He invented a new language, he cut words in two like Cole Porter.” Birkin was creatively involved in three albums by Gainsbourg: ‘Baby Alone in Babylone’ in 1983, ‘Lost Song’ in 1987, and ‘Amours des Feintes’ in 1990. She is also credited with the release of several solo albums, including ‘Di Doo Dah’, ‘Ex fan des Sixties’ and ‘Lolita Go Home’, and her collaborations with other popular musicians such as Etienne Daho. The singer also released “Oh! Pardon tu dormais” in 2021, the first album of her own songs written in English.

Her acting career

One of her most noted film credits happens to be her second feature, Jacques Deray’s La Piscine. In her acting career, Jane earned a total of three nominations at the Cesar Awards, including one for the 1984 film La Pirate, directed by Doillon. Birkin went on to become a darling of French cinema, appearing in over 70 films and working with some of France’s most esteemed directors, including Jean-Luc Godard, and Bertrand Tavernier.

She also starred in films by Agnès Varda and plays by Patrice Chéreau. Birkin made her directorial debut with Boxes which played at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The actress was also portrayed by her daughter Charlotte in the documentary feature Jane by Charlotte in 2021. The critically acclaimed intimate feature played at Cannes and was nominated for a Cesar Award as well.

Her style and influence on the Hermès Birkin bag

Jane Birkin helped introduce a new wave of chic female sexuality in the 1970s. In a 2006 interview, the actress reflected on her fashion icon status in the country that “adopted” her and humbly attributed it to luck. “They like my accent [and] when I came here the skirts were shorter than anyone else’s,” she expressed. “Everyone at home was wearing just the same as me. I was the lucky one because I got here first so they thought it was my fashion.” Her daughter Lou Doillon told CNN in 2017. “Mom represents a very Parisian style, which is funny because she’s not.”

When it comes to her influence on Hermès’s most lucrative reticule, the incident that led to it was a fortuitous one. While she was on an Air France flight in 1984, her oversized Kelly bag in which she was keeping her possessions broke, leading her to complain aloud that Hermès did not make a bag that could fit all her belongings. The man sitting next to her happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, then the head designer of Hermès (and later its chief executive). “I said, Why don’t you make a bag that’s sort-of four times the (size of the) Kelly that you could just leave open,” she recalled in a 2020 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, before proceeding to draw a sketch on the plane’s vomit bag. The company released the Birkin bag line the same year — in just the large size she had requested

A standard Birkin bag today sells for thousands, and the difficulties of obtaining one have lent the bag the charm of exclusivity. Rare varieties even command hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions according to British Vogue, demand for which still “outstrips supply”.

Her last years

Birkin, who was known for her support towards women and LGBTQ rights, suffered a stroke in 2021 and had recently broken her shoulder blade which led to several cancelled concerts in March. Earlier this year, she took part in the televised charity concert organised by Les Enfoirés. Just three months ago, in May, Birkin canceled a new round of concerts that were set to open at the Olympia and La Cigale theaters in Paris, releasing a statement saying that while she had “always been a great optimist,” she realised that she “needed a bit more time to be able to be on stage.”

“The most Parisian of the English has left us,” the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, wrote in a Twitter message on Sunday. “We will never forget her songs, her laughs, and her incomparable accent.”

(Main and featured image: Samir Hussein via Getty Images)

This article was first published in PrestigeOnline Singapore.

The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.