There are very few surnames as closely associated with one singular item as that of Jane Birkin’s.
But why was Jane Birkin’s name attributed to such a bag? And why has it amassed such a relentless fan base? And *how* do we get our hands on one without remortgaging the house?
Here are seven things you might not know about the world’s most in-demand (and expensive!) accessory…
Chic, we know, but it’s true. In 1981 a 34-year-old Jane Birkin found herself being upgraded by Air France on a flight to London and being seated next to a man who later turned out to be the visionary artistic director and chairman of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas.
“I’m not quite sure what type of bag I had with me,” Jane told Vogue back in 2012, “my husband Jacques Doillon had reversed his car over my basket [photographed below], crushed it on purpose not too days before. [Dumas] thought I deserved more.”
“Little did he know that on this airplane journey, when everything fell out of whatever bag I had, the man next to me said, ‘you should have one with pockets.’ I said, ‘the day Hermès makes one with pockets I will have that.’ And he said: “‘but I am Hermès, and I will put pockets in for you’.”
Going on to make the most of this chance encounter, Jane Birkin said: “‘why don’t you make a handbag that is bigger than the Kelly but smaller than Serge’s suitcase?’ And he said ‘well, what would it be like?’ And I think I drew it on the sick bag – or the not-be-sick bag. And he said ‘I’ll make it for you’.”
Of course, years later, there’s no denying the allure of the Hermès Birkin.
