More Than A Muse: How Jane Birkin radically defied societal expectations
After a successful career as an actor, musician and fashion icon, Jane Birkin has died aged 76. The English-born star made a name for herself as a model during London’s swinging sixties, and soon after, she landed a small, scandalous role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, helping to kickstart her career on the big screen.
Along with a supporting part in Jacques Deray’s La Piscine with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider and with a leading role in Slogan, starring her future lover Serge Gainsbourg, Birkin quickly established herself with a string of early and supremely impressive French performances. Soon, she relocated to the country, picking up the language and becoming a staple of many French productions. Birkin remained faithful to her European roots and worked exclusively in foreign and arthouse productions throughout the rest of her career, becoming an icon of French cinema by collaborating with big names such as Agnès Varda and Jacques Rivette.
On the surface, it appeared as though Birkin had it all. She was a successful actor, launched a music career which featured many collaborations with Gainsbourg – one of France’s most popular musicians – and was regarded as a fashion icon. Yet, Birkin was deeply insecure about both her looks and abilities, leading her to experience bouts of depression and anxiety throughout her life. In 2018, she published Munkey Diaries: 1957-1982, revealing her personal struggles through the years. Despite her beautiful songs and iconic outfits (even inspiring the prestigious Hermès Birkin bag), one of the most special things about Birkin was her vulnerability.
Birkin was known to be quiet and emotional, yet she was never afraid to admit to possessing such traits. In a world where women are often ridiculed for being overly emotional and expressive, Birkin openly admitted to being a sensitive soul with refreshing honesty. In her diary collection, she reflected on entries she’d written decades prior, describing her tumultuous relationships, struggles with motherhood and bodily insecurities. She wrote, “I think I’m nothing, I’m persecuted by women who I love more than myself… Oh, for the face of Nastassja Kinski, of Fanny Ardant, oh, the talent, the courage, the qualities. I have nothing interesting to say…” These insecurities never left Birkin, who began dating Gainsbourg shortly after he dated the enigmatic Brigitte Bardot, a French sex symbol.
In fact, one of the reasons Birkin sang on ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus’ was because of her insecurities. She told Interview Magazine in 2020, “He’d made this song with Brigitte Bardot the year before, and he asked me if I wanted to sing it, and out of jealousy, I said yes because I didn’t want anybody else to be singing it. […] I said, ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ just out of loving him and being scared stiff that he would be with some beautiful blonde.”
Behind her cool-girl exterior, pioneering an effortless style which cemented her as a French fashion icon, Birkin struggled with her volatile emotions. Above everything, she wanted to be loved, yet she often found herself involved with intense, challenging men. As much as she adored Gainsbourg, they parted ways in 1980 due to his increasing alcoholism, although Birkin found it hard to move on from him. “I’m missing Serge so much,” she wrote in 1981, describing her inability to shake him out of her mind.
As the years progressed, Birkin continued to release music and perform live, proving her talents after years of uncertainty. She also used her platform as a style icon to discuss ageing, speaking out against the oppressive beauty standards which caused her so much anxiety in her younger years. In 1988’s Jane B. par Agnès V, a portrait of Birkin as she turned 40, she and Varda addressed the process of ageing through various vignettes.
She revealed to Interview Magazine, “When I decided to sing for real at 40, I cut all my hair off and dressed up as a boy. I realized then that I was fed up with the rather sexy image that I’d played along with. Serge said, ‘Oh, you’re not going to cut all your hair off. You must make yourself look like a lion.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to make myself look like a lion. I’m fed up with looking like a lion. I’m going to cut it all off and wear boy’s clothes.’ He said, ‘You’re going to make no effort at all?’ I said, ‘No effort at all. I just want them to hear your music and your words.’ And it was a treat. It was lovely.”
Birkin’s older style, a far cry from her typically ultra-feminine looks of the ‘60s and ‘70s, liberated her from the confines of patriarchal beauty standards, signalling to other women the true freedom that comes with abandoning expectations and living freely and authentically.
Talking to Harper’s Bazaar in 2018, she echoed these sentiments, stating, “I think women only start to really look like themselves after they turn 30. That’s when a girl first dares to be her own age, show her bare face, and not just dress for boyfriends or husbands. I’ve kept all the old photos of myself from the ’60s, but I can’t relate to them now at all. All that dressing up! And the eye makeup! We looked like Barbie dolls.”
She also added, “Growing older really is the strangest thing. I recently said to my daughter Lou Doillon, ‘It’s gone.’ And she’s like, ‘What’s gone, Mum?’ And I said, ‘My beauty.’ It’s like you wake up one day, and suddenly, the outside doesn’t correspond to the inside anymore. I’ve adjusted my thinking a bit since then. The essential thing, I now think, is a good sense of humour. […] Aging is also liberating.”
After a career spanning six decades, Birkin passed away on July 16th, 2023. Alongside her legacy as an English-French icon of screen and style, Birkin is also remembered for her radical neglection of societal expectations. Not only was she open about her emotional struggles, but she also welcomed ageing with open arms. For many women, Birkin was a true inspiration. Never was she merely a pretty face – Birkin was a vocal advocate for living life for oneself, even if it took her years to crack life’s complicated code.
