Inside the Iconic Hermès Birkin Bag Made in Honor of Jane Birkin
Fashion and celebrity go hand-in-hand. A trend can spark because the right person is spotted wearing a certain look. At the same time, celebrity culture is heavily influential on the actual designs of the fashion industry. Some celebrities even inspire fashion designers to name their designs after the inspirational celebrity.
One of the most iconic examples is the Birkin bag, which has now taken on a life of its own. What should we know about its namesake and inspiration, Jane Birkin?
Jane Birkin is a singer, actor, and director with iconic influence
Born in 1946 in London, Jane Birkin rose to fame as one-half of a famous celebrity couple in the 1970s. Birkin’s relationship with Serge Gainsbourg captured the cultural moment. The pair released a 1969 album with a track (in French) so steamy that the moans and panting in the background got it banned from the airwaves, according to IMDb.
Speaking with Vogue in 2019 (at the age of 72), Birkin looked back on those moments of her life with a fondness: “We must have represented a form of freedom. The 20-year age gap, our lifestyle, we went out at night and came home to wake up Kate and Charlotte before school, and then slept in the daytime. That was my fantasy, our lack of taboos.” She added that “Serge used to say: ‘We are not an immoral couple, we are an amoral couple.'”
Birkin’s look became a flashpoint of a particular cultural moment as well. She was known for her “androgynous figure, astonished and big doe-eyes, ultra-sensitive ingenuousness and irresistible accent,” all qualities that left her a muse for many — including Jean-Louis Dumas, the former head of Hermès.
The Hermès Birkin bag was named after Jane Birkin
As L’Officiel reports, Jane Birkin had a chance encounter with Jean-Louis Dumas (then head of Hermès) in the 1980s. The French brand has a long and storied history dating back to 1837 and has built a reputation for craftsmanship and style. By the time Birkin and Dumas were neighboring passengers on an airplane, Hermès already had an established legacy in designer bags.
Robert Dumas (as Insider reports, the Dumas family were heirs to the Hermès brand and fortune) had created a handbag in the 1930s that would find itself shooting to fame in 1956 when it appeared on the arm of none other than Grace Kelly. Eventually, the bag would be named the Kelly and become an icon of style.
Surely this history was in his mind as Jean-Louis Dumas chatted up Birkin. As Birkin described her ideal bag — one large enough to accommodate all of her things — the pair sketched out a plan. That plan eventually became what today known as the Birkin bag is, a legendary accessory that can cost thousands of dollars and is a celebrity status symbol staple (and was once a plot device for an entire Gilmore Girls episode).
What other celebrities have the honor of a bag named for them?
Jane Birkin’s influential Birkin design may be one of the best-known luxury symbols, but many designers have given their bags names to those who inspired them.
The Nina bag, for instance, comes from designer Gabriela Hearst (and is often seen on the arm of Meghan Markle). It earned its name from none other than activist singer Nina Simone. Italian designer brand Salvatore Ferragamo has a bag called the Sofia Tote. That accessory got its name from the iconic Sofia Loren.
