YOU KNOW HER NAME
August Man SG|Issue 192
Actress, singer, and namesake of the highly coveted Hermès handbags, Jane Birkin passed age 76 last month. We take a trip down memory lane and look at her life and legacy
AMOS CHIN
YOU KNOW HER NAME

ON A FLIGHT from Paris to London in the early 1980s, the London-born singer and actress serendipitously made fashion history. It all happened in the clouds as Jane Birkin struggled to organise her belongings in her handbag and expressed frustration to her neighbour onboard, a man who so happened to be then Head Designer of Hermès (and later its Chief Executive), Jean-Louis Dumas. Fascinated, Dumas used her feedback to produce a handbag that would meet her needs. What bag, you ask? You do know her name? Influential, the Birkin remains one of the most coveted and elusive handbags today.

Her relationship with French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg was just as fortuitous. It was in 1968 when the multi-hyphenate met the latter while working on the French film Slogan. While Birkin had already established herself as an actress in Britain, her time in France, particularly her relationship with Gainsbourg, opened up new opportunities that helped shape her artistic identity.

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