Time to Trade In the Birkin for a Basket
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It’s quite ironic that Jane Birkin, whose sense of functionality over vanity inspired the Hermès Birkin, never really cared for the prestige of the bag. “You know, when I’m dead, not only will people remember me for ‘Je t’aime moi non plus,’ but they’ll possibly only talk about the bag,” she mocked in an interview with Christiane Amanpour. Perhaps she was right — Jane was announced dead Sunday evening, and the first thing we think about is that damn Hermès bag.
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Before the Birkin (and in typical fashion with papers, keys, and other paraphernalia poking and prodding out the top), Jane carried an oversized straw basket, the only thing she deemed worthy of straddling her arm. On a flight from Paris to London in 1984, grabbing a seat next to Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas, her basket tipped, spewing its contents over the plane floor. In rage and frustration, Jane griped at Dumas that practicality was the only thing in fashion.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you make a bag that’s four times the Kelly that you can leave open?’ Because girls like to have things on the end of their arm to put all their stuff in,” Jane regaled about her flight with Dumas. Thus, the Birkin was born.
However, I can’t help but wonder, had Jane never sat next to Dumas or her basket never tipped, would we even have the Birkin today? Or would straw baskets become the “it bag” that mothers and daughters strive to hoard, collecting memories and dust as they sit high on the shelves of collectors worldwide?
In honor of her infamous straw basket, I encourage you to pine after something that will likely not hold monetary value but will encapsulate the rogue and tenacious energy of the only real Birkin, Jane.
Straw Baskets, the Original “It Bag”
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