Jane Birkin, a prominent fashion icon and the creator of the Birkin bag, passes away at age 76.

Although she is best known as the designer of the Birkin bag, the British-French singer, actress, and style icon was so much more.

Few things are as tedious as the word "fashion icon," but that doesn't mean there aren't any individuals who unquestionably define fashion for their era. One of them was Jane Birkin.

The fact that the British-French actress and singer, who passed away at the age of 76 on Sunday in Paris of unspecified reasons, is primarily remembered for the opulent Hermès handbag that bears her name, is perhaps unfair to her. The modeling agent Paul Rowland referred to Ms. Birkin as a "eternal muse" on Instagram, but her influence went far beyond fashion. She provided unequivocal evidence that attitude is the root of the best style.

According to opera director and designer Patrick Kinmonth, chic may be "nothing," but it's the correct nothing. Ms. Birkin has always worn the perfect nothing, even in the beginning of her career when she was Serge Gainsbourg's muse and consort.

The designer Anna Sui remarked on Sunday, "She set a style example for a generation of women," reeling off a list of components that went into the gamin beauty's casual chic.

There were her go-to espadrilles, cutoff jeans, and shrunken T-shirts. There were the babydoll dresses, which were only ever worn with greater panache by actress Mia Farrow. She contributed to the widespread ubiquity of striped Breton sweaters. She once wore a see-through daisy-crocheted dress with a plunging neckline that was cleverly, if barely, affixed with a brooch to a French arts union banquet. There were the unkempt bangs that she had worn her entire life and which appeared to have been trimmed by her own hand with cuticle scissors.

According to Ms. Sui, her design sense "introduced something new to our fashion vocabulary" and was "very different from American style." The designer was questioned about the specifics of that style. "There was something British about it, that slightly rumpled English look but fused with the classic French codes," she remarked.

The Hermès Birkin bag may wind up being the greatest illustration. Before it was created, Ms. Birkin was frequently seen carrying a straw market basket that was stuffed with accessories like makeup, keys,

and other small items. In a 2018 YouTube interview, she said, "I was well recognized for carrying a basket. I knew girls loved to carry a lot of stuff about in their handbags, of course.

Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas was inspired to design a bag large enough to hold all of her belongings by her large basket and its overflowing contents while he was traveling from Paris to London. Ms. Birkin famously remarked, "I would love to have been a sort of neat person and wear a Kelly," alluding to the prim, boxy-style handbag designed and named for the actress Grace Kelly. However, I never imagined you could get enough out of it.

The supple leather Birkin's satchel shape was inspired by Hermès's previous Haut à Courroies design from circa 1900. The bag's loop handles and strap fastener—typically left unlocked to show the Hermès logo—closed with a characteristic piece of hardware helped it become a universally recognized symbol of prestige and luxury. A Diamond Himalaya version, which Sotheby's sold in 2022 for over $450,000, became the most expensive handbag ever to be sold at auction. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, whose handbag collections form a subset of online fashion pornography, as well as Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B, wear and collect Birkins, which have a base price of over $10,000.