Marisa Meltzer on Jane Birkin
No one knows Jane Birkin better than New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer, whose new biography "It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin" comes out this week.
Learn more about Marisa's fascination with Jane Birkin's iconic (and often oversimplified) legacy below.
Inspiration Behind "It Girl"
“My latest book combined so many of my lifelong interests: fashion, France, movies, music, love stories. Plus, writing about someone who is closely associated with a particular time always draws me in. It's easier to make the story of someone's life feel alive and set it apart from what could just sound encyclopedic.
Jane Birkin's life had that: the Swinging Sixties, the louche Paris of the 1970s. I wanted to write a book that felt like living through those eras while also diving into the life of a woman whose name might only be a little bit familiar.”
More Than a Muse
“Like many, I had written Jane Birkin off as just a muse, which was unfairly dismissive on my part. What she was to those artists was much more of a close collaborator. She knew the kind of bag she wanted from Hermés, and after they made her a custom one, they realized how much potential it had.
She and Agnès Varda explored in a documentary all the ways she had been written off as someone's inspiration and poke a lot of fun at that reputation. And then her whole personality and style and ethos helped inspire Gainsbourg to write so many albums for her very singular voice and point of view.”
Birkin's Enduring Style
“Birkin’s clothes are accessible and totally inaccessible at the same time, which is irresistible! Anyone can afford ballet flats or denim shorts or white t-shirts or little mini dresses, but no one wore them quite in the same way Jane Birkin did. Plus she had access to a lot of designer clothes, sometimes made custom for her. There was an insouciance about the whole thing.
You know, wearing jeans and a blazer with the Birkin bag but it's covered in stickers and has a nail clipper hanging off of it. That's just cool.”
