Jane Birkin: The English-Born French Style Icon Who Transcended Generations
Jane Birkin: The English-Born French Style Icon Who Transcended Generations
By: Emma Greene
Actress, singer, lifelong style icon, and namesake of the Hermès Birkin bag, Jane Birkin embodied effortless elegance.
Birkin was a pioneer of the now timeless Parisian style despite calling London, England home for the first seventeen years of her life. Named “the most Parisian of English women” by Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, Birkin’s death will be felt across the worlds of fashion, music, and film for years to come. Birkin passed away in her Paris home on July 16, 2023, at 76 years old.
Birkin began her life in the French capital shortly after completing her first French film, Slogan.
At this time, Birkin described her style as “a copy of Jean Shrimpton[’s],” alluding to clean-cut mod styles that were common in English counterculture, as this was the movement in which she began her acting career.
Birkin in the early 1960s.
While Birkin’s Shrimpton-esque style was popular in both her native city and Paris in the early 1960s, it was Birkin’s impact on street fashion that brought along the effortlessly chic way of dressing that is now considered the epitome of French style.
Birkin had already acted in English films Kaleidoscope and Wonderwall before auditioning for Slogan. She believed she landed the role due to her accent, as most natives found it, and her broken French charming. Birkin never learned to speak French perfectly. In the beginning, she memorized her lines phonetically, repeating sounds as they were read to her without knowing what they truly meant.
Birkin did not yet know Slogan would change everything, transforming her life as a seventeen-year-old, recently single mother into that of an acclaimed French actress.
Her co-star in the film, Serge Gainsbourg, was one of the biggest names in French pop culture at the time. He and Birkin began their twelve-year romance while filming, although they did not get along at first. Shortly after making the film, Birkin and daughter Kate Berry packed their things to start a new life alongside Gainsbourg in France.
Birkin and Gainsbourg at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969.
While with Gainsbourg, Birkin found a confidence that she did not have in London, free from comparison to her mother, the English stage actress Judy Campbell, and childhood insecurities about her “boyish” figure.
This is the period in which Birkin would earn her place as a tastemaker.
Mini dresses were among Birkin’s staples. Her most iconic included a sheer sweater dress which she wore to the premiere of Slogan with only a pair of black underwear beneath and a Poco Rabanne dress which she shortened so that it fit like a long tee shirt.
Birkin was also known to wear wide-leg jeans paired with a variety of white tops and for her tousled fringe, both of which are now considered essential facets of classic Parisian style.
Birkin’s music career began shortly after her move to Paris when she and Gainsbourg recorded the single, “Je t’aime… moi non plus,” which Gainsbourg had originally written for himself and Bridget Bardot. The song would kickstart Birkin’s music career, despite her “having no ambition to become a singer.”
“Je t’aime… moi non plus” topped charts in the United Kingdom despite its scandalous subject matter and being banned by the BBC and in several countries. Birkin recorded 23 albums in her lifetime, most of which Gainsbourg wrote for her, and toured their music until June of 2023.
She and Gainsbourg welcomed their daughter Charlotte in 1971. As parents of two, they still spent their nights out on the town embracing the world of disco and coming home just in time to wake their daughters for school.
In a 2019 interview with French Vogue, Birkin recalled her time with Gainsbourg saying, “ We are not an immoral couple, we are an amoral couple.” Birkin believed the two lived outside of taboos, bringing about a passion and friendship unlike any other.
Birkin and Gainsbourg with their daughters, Kate and Charlotte, and dog, Nanna.
Gainsbourg and Birkin maintained a positive relationship after their separation. He was even made the godfather of her third daughter, Lou Doillon, whom she had with film director Jaques Doillon, and was considered a father by Birkin’s first daughter, Kate Berry, into her adulthood.
As a mother of three, Birkin was known to accessorize her outfits with a large wicker basket that held everything she and her daughters needed. It was seen by her side anywhere from the farmer’s market to red carpets.
Birkin’s eponymous Birkin Bag was conceived when she and Jean-Louis Dumas, Hermès creative director and CEO from 1978 to 2006, were seated next to each other on a flight from Paris to London in the early 1980s. While placing her basket in the overhead bin, it slipped. Dumas assisted Birkin in collecting her belongings from the fuselage and joked that she needed a larger bag, perhaps one with pockets instead of one gaping compartment.
Birkin was unaware of her seat partner’s power when commenting after the fact that she would only give up her signature basket when Hermès released a bag big enough to carry everything she needed as a mother and weekend traveler. The two promptly sketched the first Birkin bag design on a sick bag.
While the exact date of the paramount flight is unknown, the Birkin bag was released in 1984. Birkin was gifted a black 40cm version which she personalized with stickers and keychains.
Birkin and her Birkin in 2015.
The Birkin originally retailed for $2,000. The bags are now said to cost between $10,000 and $40,000 depending on the size and composition. Since Hermès only releases a small number of the bags each year, they have maintained an unobtainable status which has earned them a spot as one of the most desired luxury items in history. A Birkin bag was recently bought at auction for $300,168 in Hong Kong, the most ever spent on a handbag.
As the world mourns the loss of Jane Birkin, her spirit will endure through her timeless style, chart-topping hits, and namesake bag. Her unique ability to blend her personal style with that of 1960s mod, 1970s flare, and a mother’s need for functionality created a timeless way of dressing that will continue to inspire generations to push the boundaries of trend.
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