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Born in London, Birkin became famous with her partner, the French musician Serge Gainsbourg.
The singer, actress and fashion icon Jane Birkin died this Sunday in Paris at the age of 76.
The Anglo-French star had a close personal and artistic relationship with the composer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom he recorded the well-known and controversial song “Je t’aime…moi non plus”.
It also inspired the popular Hermès Birkin bag.
Birkin was born in London but made a name for herself singing in French and moved to France in the 1970s.
Her relationship with Gainsbourg made her internationally famous when she performed the hit song “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, composed by him for his ex-girlfriend Brigitte Bardot.
The couple recorded the song in 1968, months after they met on the set of the movie Slogan.
The song was banned from radio in several countries and received condemnation from the Vatican for its overtly sexual lyrics.
Despite this, it served to make the couple popular in front of a new international audience.
French President Emmanuel Macron described Birkin as a “French icon” and a “complete artist” who “bequeaths us melodies and images that will never leave us.”
The Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, affirmed of her that she “transcended generations”.
Birkin and Gainsbourg were together for 12 years and after separating they remained friends. Gainsbourg, 18 years older than Birkin, continued to write songs for her years later.
The couple had a daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is a well-known actress and singer.
Their relationship was frequently described as “turbulent”, with Birkin revealing details of the violence between the two in his 2020 diaries, as well as the challenges posed by Gainsbourg’s alcoholism.
image copyrightGetty Images
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Birkin in his youth.
She used to defend her former partner, including against accusations by a singer who called him a “stalker” in a Times interview in 2020, and continued to promote his work long after his death in 1991.
When asked about her lifestyle last year by the same newspaper, she replied: “I don’t know if it was easy for children to have a mother who was naked in magazines and a father burning 500-franc notes. I hope I did some things right. “
image copyrightGetty Images
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She starred in some 70 films in a six-decade career as an actress.
The couple separated in 1981, and Birkin continued her career as an actress and singer, with two albums in 1983 and 1990.
She was also a model and became a reference in fashion trends, inspiring the Birkin bag of the luxury French brand Hermès in 1984.
In a chance meeting on a flight with Jean-Louis Dumas, the then CEO of Hermès, Birkin spilled the contents of her bag.
Criticizing the market’s lack of large bags, especially for mothers, Dumas “drew on the spot a supple and roomy rectangular holdall with a burnished flap and saddler stitching,” according to the Hermès website.
And so the Birkin was born, one of the most exclusive bags whose most expensive versions cost tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars and have waiting lists of months or years.
In 2006 the artist told The Guardian: “I love it, but I carry so many things that I think it’s one of the reasons for my tendonitis.”
Birkin campaigned for numerous causes throughout his life, including calling on Hermès to remove his name from its product in 2015 over animal welfare considerations.
Before moving to France and meeting Gainsbourg, Birkin was married to British composer John Barry until the late 1960s.
image copyrightGetty Images
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The Birkin bag was designed according to your preferences.
His daughter, Kate Barry, was a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. She died in 2013 at the age of 46.
Another Birkin daughter is music artist, model and actress Lou Doillon, the fruit of her relationship in the 1980s with French film director Jacques Doillon.
Birkin’s acting career includes such films as the 1966 classic “Blow-Up,” “Death on the Nile” (1978) and “Death Under the Sun” (1982).
She released a self-penned album in 2002 called “Arabesque” and a collection of live recordings in 2009 under the title “Jane at the Palace”.
image copyrightGetty Images
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Birkin continued to sing after the 1970s.
Menna Rawlings, the British ambassador to France, paid tribute to her on Twitter, describing her as “the most French of British artists.”
Birkin received treatment for leukemia in the late 1990s and in September 2021 it was revealed that she had suffered a stroke, forcing her to cancel her participation in an American film festival.
image copyrightGetty Images
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2023-07-16 22:02:32
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