IT GIRL: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin, by Marisa Meltzer
The Hermès purse that became one of the world’s most enduringly coveted items was dreamed up on the back of an Air France sick bag in 1983.
In an “only in business class” coincidence, the chief executive of Hermès spotted the singer and actress Jane Birkin fumbling with her belongings — her partner had run over the trademark basket she used as a handbag during an argument — and invited her to sketch something more suitable for her needs.
In time, the so-called Birkin Bag practically eclipsed the notoriety of its namesake. But for Birkin herself, it was just yet another stroke of serendipity in a life full of them.
Birkin, who died in 2023, was much more than the essence of French-girl chic. In “It Girl,” the journalist Marisa Meltzer offers an entertaining, if gauzy, biography, seeking to round out Birkin’s reputation beyond that of a breathy, bra-eschewing style icon. She understands the sexism inherent in being branded — pigeonholed, really — as a muse to tempestuous men, and asserts Birkin as an artist in her own right.
Birkin was boxed in, literally, from the time of her birth: Born in London, she and another baby were kept huddled together in a bin on the radiator, “both covered in a damp cloth because the clinic lacked an incubator.”
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The post Beyond Handbags and French Bad Boys: Reconsidering Jane Birkin appeared first on New York Times.
