In many ways, Jane Birkin was the ideal subject for Marisa Meltzer.
“I knew just enough about her that I knew why I was drawn to her,” the writer says over a Zoom call on a recent morning. “She was at the intersection of movies and music and fashion; she was an outsider in Paris; she was in the middle of the Swinging ’60s in London but she was also in this sort of loose ’70s in Paris, which are two really exciting eras of culture. But I didn’t know so much about her that I felt like I had a preconceived notion [about her].”
The 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 Hermès bag named for her, to the fashion industry. Yet until Meltzer’s new book, her life had yet to be fully examined.
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Meltzer, a freelance writer and New York Times bestselling author of “Glossy,” has published “It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin,” out Tuesday. She had the idea to do a book on Birkin when the icon passed away in July 2023; “Glossy” was released a month later, and as soon as the book tour wrapped Meltzer decamped to Paris for months of research.
“She’s 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’s kind of more of a beloved figure?” Meltzer says. “What if you only know that she’s the namesake of the bag? Or what if you only know her as someone from a Serge Gainsbourg song?”
Birkin’s story had “all the elements of good research” 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 Alaïa 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.
She also was able to visit the Hermès factory and watch Birkin bags being made, “which is something that is not open to the public and was very thrilling to see and meet people who do it,” Meltzer says. “After writing about it and her, and thinking about it so much, to see it in person was pretty exciting.”
Despite having an Hermès bag made and named for her, which would go on to be one of the most famous handbags of all time, Birkin wasn’t particularly defined by the experience, Meltzer found.
“She was a great friend of the house, but for her, it wasn’t this culmination of ‘you’ve made it.’ And it sort of is indicative of how everything was for her, how she fell into things and it seemed easy,” Meltzer says. “For most people, that would’ve been their biggest diary entry of all time. ‘I met this chief executive of Hermès on a plane. He’s making me a bag.’ [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.”
When it came to naming the book, Meltzer originally had submitted it under a different placeholder name, “Moi Non Plus,” 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 “It Girl” untouched by a biographer.
“It was kind of amazing that it hadn’t been taken,” Meltzer says. “So I hope that the idea of ‘It’ girl invites you in, but you understand the sort of richness that goes beyond it.”
