Actress, singer and muse with a perfect fringe to boot. Jane Birkin, who passed away yesterday at the age of 76 in Paris, was most famous for inspiring one of fashion’s most coveted accessories – the Hermes Birkin bag - and for the vocals in 1969’s provocative hit Je t’aime…moi non plus.
Although she was London born and raised, Birkin moved to France in the 1960s (after her first marriage aged 17 to composer John Barry ended) and the country adopted her — yesterday French president Emmanuel Macron described her as “a French icon”.
It was here, aged 22, she met the musician Serge Gainsbourg, 20 years her senior and dubbed the ‘bad boy’ of the French music scene at the time. The beautiful and hedonistic couple become wildly famous, pictures of the pair - whether partying or at home together - well documented. They had one daughter in 1971, Charlotte, who went on to become a successful actress and musician herself. While the pair split up after over a decade together in 1980, their passionate love affair still captures the public’s imagination today.
As an individual Birkin soon became a style icon, a label she retained up until her death. Her aesthetic straddled Parisian chic and English nonchalance, a combination that proved irresistible to legions of imitators including the likes of Alexa Chung who said: “You were It for me” in an Instagram tribute to Birkin.
On an Air France flight in 1984, Birkin spilled the contents of her handbag and complained to the man next to her that she could never find one capacious enough. That man just so happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, the then-CEO of Hermès, who immediately set about designing the iconic Birkin – which sell for tens of thousands and have waiting lists.
But there was much more to Birkin than handbags and heavy breathing. Read on for some of her best, and most insightful, quotes about everything from love and literature to stealing, smoking and socks.
On growing up
“I think women only start to really look like themselves after they turn 30. That’s when a girl first dares to be her own age, show her bare face, and not just dress for boyfriends or husbands. I’ve kept all the old photos of myself from the ’60s, but I can’t relate to them now at all. All that dressing up! And the eye makeup! We looked like Barbie dolls.”
On family
“I had a baby at 19 and was a grandmother by 39. Now, my children lend me their children to take them off to Brittany. It’s divine. I’m quite exceptionally lucky. I’ve never had a week without having all three of my daughters on the telephone.”
[Birkin’s eldest daughter Kate Barry died in 2013]
On make up
“I put some red stuff on my mouth and cheeks so I look healthy - any old red lip pencil and a lip colour from Dr. Hauschka in a crushed berry tone. I never put anything on my eyes, or I look like Joan Crawford.”
On reading
“I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries.”
On her fringe
“My best friend cuts my hair with kitchen scissors.”
On Serge Gainsbourg
“He was a great man. I was just pretty.”
On the reaction to Je t’aime … moi non plus
“It was surprising to be banned by both the Vatican and the BBC. And it was funny to have the BBC orchestra playing it because they wouldn’t play it on Top of the Pops.”
On love
“As soon as I fell in love, I was overcome by the fear that I would lose the man I loved, convinced that all the other girls were more interesting than I was. This insecurity, this lack of self-confidence is frightening for the other person, especially as it inevitably goes hand in hand with jealousy. I must have been impossible to live with. I am very happy today to no longer be in love. When love isn’t there, pain doesn’t exist either.”
On beauty
“Keep smiling - it takes 10 years off.”
On her looks
“My distinguishing feature is the gap between my teeth. I had to wear a brace because my teeth used to stick out like guns from a fortress.”
On the Birkin bag
“A Birkin bag is a very good rain hat; just put everything else in a plastic bag.”
On stealing
“I’ve stolen a few cushions from Air France. I used to steal from [Paris restaurant] Maxim’s, but all the waiters were in on it. I used to fill my basket with all its plates. I even had the silverware under my shirt once, and when I went to sign autographs on the way out it all fell out.”
On David Attenborough
“[He] has that wonderful, breathy voice, and he’s always so fascinated by what he’s seeing. There’s nothing about him that I can’t find attractive.”
On socks
“I’m allergic to socks. You immediately imagine a guy naked with just his socks on, which is ghastly.”
On hedonism
“We went out at night and came home to wake up Kate and Charlotte before school, and then slept in the daytime.”
On French and English style
“The French are more sophisticated, but perhaps the English are more original… I came to Paris for the first time because I was sent to a finishing school. The French girls used to mock us in the Metro, they could see we were English because we were so badly dressed. They were all impeccable, but they were all quite the same. It wasn’t yet the swinging ‘60s, and we didn’t know how to turn ourselves out.”
On ageing
“Ageing is also liberating. If you see someone you think is beautiful, you can just come out and say it and no one thinks you’re making a pass. The other day I told my taxi driver that he had a beautiful nose. It was long and hooked, but to me it was beautiful. He nearly crashed the car.”
On quitting smoking
“I had to give up smoking because of constant bronchitis... but I did like a drag. I become a nun on tour. No drinking at all, because if I have a glass, my hand starts moving towards the cigarettes. One thing leads to another really rather fast.”
On surrender
“My mother was right: When you’ve got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust.”
On the importance of confidence
“It’s impossible to be stylish without confidence.”
On fun
“When you start recognising that you’re having fun, life can be delightful.”
