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You can’t apply for the role of muse in the fashion industry. It is never advertised and calling yourself one is tackier than a fake handbag. You simply know one when you see them.
Along with Jackie Kennedy, the Duchess of Windsor, socialite Babe Paley, performer Josephine Baker and actor Audrey Hepburn, Jane Birkin, who died on Sunday aged 76, was immediately recognisable as a muse.
Jane Birkin, the epitome of simplicity in jeans and a T-shirt, with Serge Gainsbourg in Cannes, France in 1974.Credit: Getty
She wore the title so well that even lending her name to the ultimate luxury handbag, the Hermès Birkin, failed to eclipse her style spirit.
“Having a Hermès bag named after you says it all,” says celebrity stylist Jess Pecoraro, who has worked with Jesinta Franklin and Pip Edwards. “My first thought when she died was that the bag is going to go up in price again. I have my eye on a vintage one and now I’ll never get it.”
The coveted handbag was created in the mid-eighties, after Birkin found herself upgraded on an Air France flight to a seat beside Jean-Louis Dumas, chief executive and artistic director of his family’s brand Hermès. After hearing how Birkin’s husband filmmaker Jacques Doillon had deliberately run over her signature wicker basket in his car, Dumas designed a practical, streamlined bag for the working mother.
Today, customers can pay thousands and wait years for a Birkin handbag in their preferred style to arrive at a Hermès boutique. A crocodile Birkin bag is currently available on luxury auction site 1stDibs for $US575,000 ($857,581).
“To the French and because of her relationship with Serge Gainsbourg, she was an eternal symbol of the youth culture of the late ’60s and ’70s,” says former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements. “Young, cool and free-spirited.” Jane Birkin in 1974 in Cannes with her wicker basket; on television in 1974; in 2017 with her Birkin bag.Credit: Getty
In a statement on Sunday, Hermès paid tribute to Birkin’s influence. “We discovered and appreciated the extent to which Jane Birkin’s soft elegance revealed an artist in her own right, committed, open-minded, with a natural curiosity of the world and others.”
“She looked just as good carrying the bag as a basket,” says Naomi Smith, fashion director at Marie Claire.
For Smith, Birkin’s appeal stems from a commitment to simple pieces worn with a casual disregard for trends, labels and price tags.
“It helps that she was incredibly beautiful, but there are plenty of pretty women out there,” Smith says. “She had incredible style, and it was all her own.”
“When she was younger she wore provocative, sheer pieces with complete confidence that made them appealing rather than shocking. Girls today are still copying that look in sheer dresses, but she made it look so effortless.”
Muse was just one of Birkin’s titles. She first found fame as an actor in London and then Paris, where she became the epitome of French chic, after being paired professionally and romantically with controversial cultural figure Serge Gainsbourg.
“I think it’s fabulous that a British woman came to define French style,” says designer Bianca Spender. “She brought that British street style to Paris, which had been stuffy and done-up.”
“With her outfits, there was always a block heel that you could run in or a look that could go to a picnic or a nightclub.”
Birkin was also a singer, first recording the scandalous breathy duet Je T’Aime . . . Moi Non Plus with Gainsbourg in 1969. Despite (or because of) reported condemnation from the Pope, the song was an international hit with Abigail, from the groundbreaking television series Number 96, recording an Australian cover version in 1973.
Birkin’s daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon (her eldest daughter, photographer Kate Barry, died in 2013) continue her creative legacy, acting and singing.
“I saw Jane Birkin perform twice in concert,” says Rachel Wayman, fashion director at In Style. “She had the same magic on the stage and on the street.”
“I was at a café in Paris when I saw her walk past years ago. I had to get up from my seat just to watch her walk away. It was a moment,”
Of course, Wayman remembers the outfit: a T-shirt, military jacket, jeans and scuffed sneakers.
“Anyone could wear that outfit but no one could wear it like her. That’s what makes someone a fashion icon.”
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