Jane Birkin, the English singer, actor, and Francophile canonized for her spitfire Sixties style, died on Sunday 16 July at the age of 76. The news comes after Birkin was forced to cancel a handful of concerts in May due to health concerns, and less than two years after Birkin suffered a minor stroke. She is survived by two daughters.
President Emmanuel Macron said Jane Birkin “embodied freedom” as he led tributes following her death. Mr Macron tweeted: “Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.”
You can’t discuss the Swinging Sixties without mentioning Jane Birkin. The actress, model, and singer-songwriter was known for her talent and style. But what’s even more impressive than her resume is the way Birkin lived, with a loose bohemian vibe and impossibly chic yet simplistic ensembles.
Jane Birkin once told British Vogue that Jean Shrimpton was her beauty muse. But for countless women around the world – then and now – the English actor and singer was the poster girl for swinging ’60s and bohemian ’70s style. At home in both a classic white tee and patchwork denim jeans or a slashed-to-the-naval crochet dress, Birkin was the epitome of I-woke-up-like-this glamour during her rise to fame as one half of pop culture’s golden couple.
With one arm entwined in her love Serge Gainsbourg’s, and the other hooked through her faithful basket, Birkin took on Cannes and airport concourses with the same insouciance (and arsenal of micro hemlines). “I buy things often, but I sleep in them for two weeks, and then they really look quite rough,” she once said, of her penchant for worn-in clothing with character. To everyone watching, she always looked perfect.
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