Everyone has a story about a Birkin bag. In the year since my book It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin came out, I have been stopped on subways, during Zoom calls, and after readings by people who want to tell me about the most famous bag of all time.
Two different and entirely unrelated individuals—one a very famous pop star—told me about making sure to bring their Birkins with them when they evacuated their homes during the Los Angeles fires. Objects, especially ones as expensive and sought-after as that bag, can hold a lot of power and meaning.
No one knew that more than Jane Birkin, the British-born, Paris-residing actor who was the bag’s namesake and inspiration. The bag had such a life of its own that it was more famous than she was, and she knew that.
My biography, which is now in paperback, is an effort to bring the woman and her life into vivid color. Here’s an excerpt, the story behind the bag that’s become a household name.
The story of the Birkin bag began as the ultimate, serendipitous meet-cute. Jane Birkin was on an Air France flight to London from Paris in 1983 and had been upgraded to first class.
The basket bag she carried, her signature since her London years, was in poor shape. Jacques Doillon had reversed his car over the bag a few days prior after a petty but nonetheless deeply felt argument, which he capped off by yelling, “It’s terrible for you to be known for your object.” As she boarded the plane, all of her life’s affairs were falling out of it: wallet, keys, pens, business cards, diapers for her daughter Lou, cigarettes, glasses.