![\"'It](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n\n\tIn many ways, Jane Birkin was the ideal subject for Marisa Meltzer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI knew just enough about her that I knew why I was drawn to her,\u201d the writer says over a Zoom call on a recent morning. \u201cShe was at the intersection of movies and music and fashion; she was an outsider in Paris; she was in the middle of the Swinging \u201960s in London but she was also in this sort of loose \u201970s in Paris, which are two really exciting eras of culture. But I didn\u2019t know so much about her that I felt like I had a preconceived notion [about her].\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe same is likely true for most when it comes to Birkin. She is known for her relationship as a muse: to Serge Gainsbourg, to the famous Herm\u00e8s bag named for her, to the fashion industry. Yet until Meltzer\u2019s new book, her life had yet to be fully examined.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeltzer, a freelance writer and New York Times bestselling author of \u201cGlossy,\u201d has published \u201cIt Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin,\u201d out Tuesday. She had the idea to do a book on Birkin when the icon passed away in July 2023; \u201cGlossy\u201d was released a month later, and as soon as the book tour wrapped Meltzer decamped to Paris for months of research.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\u201cIt Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin\u201d by Marisa Meltzer<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s this interesting story of someone who was written off as a muse in all of these different ways, but how did she see her own life? Or how did she want to be remembered? Or how should we be thinking about her, particularly outside of France where she\u2019s kind of more of a beloved figure?\u201d Meltzer says. \u201cWhat if you only know that she\u2019s the namesake of the bag? Or what if you only know her as someone from a Serge Gainsbourg song?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBirkin\u2019s story had \u201call the elements of good research\u201d thanks to her many diaries, lots of archival footage, interviews she did, etc. Aside from the Birkin bag, she is well known for her own personal style and influence in fashion. While in Paris, Meltzer visited the private Azzedine Ala\u00efa archives, which feature 1950s Dior, Chanel throughout the decades and other designs that Birkin had not necessarily worn but that were influential during her time in Paris.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe also was able to visit the Herm\u00e8s factory and watch Birkin bags being made, \u201cwhich is something that is not open to the public and was very thrilling to see and meet people who do it,\u201d Meltzer says. \u201cAfter writing about it and her, and thinking about it so much, to see it in person was pretty exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJane Birkin attends the \u201cJane Birkin sings Serge Gainsbourg Via Japan\u201d press conference at L\u2019Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo on March 26, 2013, in Tokyo. (Photo by Jun Sato\/WireImage)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Jun Sato\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite having an Herm\u00e8s bag made and named for her, which would go on to be one of the most famous handbags of all time, Birkin wasn\u2019t particularly defined by the experience, Meltzer found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe was a great friend of the house, but for her, it wasn\u2019t this culmination of \u2018you\u2019ve made it.\u2019 And it sort of is indicative of how everything was for her, how she fell into things and it seemed easy,\u201d Meltzer says. \u201cFor most people, that would\u2019ve been their biggest diary entry of all time. \u2018I met this chief executive of Herm\u00e8s on a plane. He\u2019s making me a bag.\u2019 [For Birkin], it was not even mentioned. So I think that shows she was much more interested in what was going on in her family and her artistic life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen it came to naming the book, Meltzer originally had submitted it under a different placeholder name, \u201cMoi Non Plus,\u201d after one of her famous songs with Gainsbourg. After deciding that giving the book a French name might be confusing, she and her editorial team were shocked to find the name \u201cIt Girl\u201d untouched by a biographer.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was kind of amazing that it hadn\u2019t been taken,\u201d Meltzer says. \u201cSo I hope that the idea of \u2018It\u2019 girl invites you in, but you understand the sort of richness that goes beyond it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJane Birkin wears strappy peep-toe sandals with jeans in London in 1973.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many ways, Jane Birkin was the ideal subject for Marisa Meltzer.\u00a0 \u201cI knew just enough about her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-481347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115335227499129865","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}