Why Jane Birkin Spoke to Gen-Z'ers Like Me
It’s been a busy week, between the motherhood of Lindsay Lohan and the rumored breakup of Ariana Grande and that guy she married. Still, one news development really rattled me: Jane Birkin died at 76.
Birkin is famous for many things–music, films and a namesake Hermés bag. I am a mostly unemployed 17-year-old with no handbags to my name, that I know of. But I’ve always been attracted to the sepia-toned melancholy and glamour of 20th century European fashion and, as you can gather from social media this week, so have many of my peers. Portraits of a young, relaxed Birkin were everywhere. Long before these pictures slowed my scroll, various algorithms introduced me to the woman who, as my grandmother put it, was “one of a kind, even while embracing the everyday girl.” Or boy.
While no one elected me president I would like to speak for most people my age and say that it’s precisely that nonchalance Birkin personified that appeals to us. The comfortable way she wore the clothes on her back.
A lot of people in my generation use the word "curated" to describe their self-presentation, especially online, but let's be real. Posed and contrived is more accurate. It's rare to find a role model these days with Birkin's poise, her casual confidence. You won't see it among the many influencer types clogging up our feeds by baring their skin or flexing their outfits. Birkin's gift was instead for elevating basics like wide-open white shirts blithely thrown over a pair of jeans.
Hers was a femininity served with a splash of androgyny that upstaged all the other (usually American) celebrities trying so hard to look more grand. She mainstreamed French girl style before there was a name for it. It was the simplicity of her sexuality that was daring in its time, and made an impact on me decades later.
That was true in her music, too. When she scandalized the world in 1969, she did it not by flaunting her body or her fancy get-ups but with low-key sartorial decisions and the sort of subtle lyrics that we wouldn't bat an eye at today. “Tu es la vague, moi l’île nue,” she sang in “Je t'aime moi non plus,” her duet with partner Serge Gainsbourg. “You are the wave, I the naked island.” She was 23 then.
Quiet luxury may be all the rage with that age group today, but social media is also rife with displays of hash-tagged conspicuous consumption. I love my “FLOP ERA” crop top and my three-inch jorts just fine, and I know when I share them that I’m going to get a bunch of “OMG BFF SC LYSM” comments, but we may all be wise to heed Birkin's advice as we re-share pictures from her long career, invariably bare-faced, laid-back and all the more beautiful for it: “It’s not style without confidence, you see.”
When I really want to slay now, I will don my linen button-down and let the likes flow.
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