Jane Birkin dies: photos of her life and the unforgettable style that made her an icon

Jane Birkin, who defined 1960s and 1970s style with her fashion, and gave name to one of the most sought-after luxury bags in history, the Hermès Birkin, has passed away aged 76.

The British-French singer and actress, an “It Girl” of mid-century, died on Sunday, July 16 in Paris. Her death was first reported by the French media and confirmed by French President Emmanuel Macron in a Tweet which read: “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.”

Below, revisit the icon’s life in photos; her unforgettable style moments, her career-defining relationship with artist Serge Gainsbourg, and more.

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Ms. Birkin was born Jane Mallory Birkin in London on December 14, 1946, to mom Judy Campbell, an actress, and dad David Birkin, a lieutenant commander of the Royal Navy.

She made her acting debut aged 19 in 1965 with an uncredited role on The Knack …and How to Get It, which she followed with a role as The Blonde in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow-Up.

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Two years later, she met Gainsbourg, who was 18 years her senior, on the set of Slogan. Their duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus” (“I love you… me neither”) and their subsequent love affair both scandalized and captivated the world.

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The song, sexually explicit in nature, came in time with the burgeoning sexual revolution of the 1960s, and was banned in radio stations in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and was condemned by the Vatican.

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“He wrote for me from 1968 until the day he died,” Birkin told the New York Times in 2018 of Gainsbourg, who died in 1991.

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She told The Independent in 2013: “[It is] very flattering to have the most beautiful songs, probably, in the French language written for one,” though she admitted: “How much talent did I really have? Perhaps not that much.”

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Birkin and Gainsbourg welcomed a daughter, Charlotte, in 1971. Birkin had previously welcomed a daughter, Kate Barry, with composer and conductor John Barry, who she married aged 19 in 1965, in 1967; she died in 2013.

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The memorable couple split in 1980  – Gainsbourg had issues with alcohol and violence – and the actress told Russh in 2020: “He was a very difficult man to live with,” though she added: “I had the very best of him, it’s true.”

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Birkin and and Hermès’ famous collaboration on the Birkin bag came about in 1983 when the luxury house’s chief executive, Jean-Louis Dumas, saw Birkin struggling with an overflowing straw basket on a flight to London, and after she told him she had been unable to find a leather bag that suited her, they devised the now classic status symbol.

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In 2015, Birkin urged the brand to stop using her name for the bag, specifically those made with crocodile leather, saying in a statement: “Having been alerted to the cruel practices endured by crocodiles during their slaughter for the production of Hermès bags carrying my name, I have asked the Hermès Group to rename the Birkin.”

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The French label, after investigating the practices used for the leather goods, was able to retain the name for the coveted bag, and said in their own subsequent statement: “Following the heartfelt emotion expressed by Jane Birkin and her request for explanation, Hermès, in agreement with her, reiterates its firm commitment in the ethical treatment of crocodiles in its partner farms.”