If you don’t live under a fashion rock, you’ve probably heard accounts of a clueless Jane Birkin casually sitting next to Jean-Louis Dumas of Hermès on an airplane, lamenting the impracticality of women’s tote bags while her belongings spilled out of her signature straw basket. Jean-Louis Dumas drafted the solution to her problem on a sick bag, and gave birth to the Birkin. When Dumas first created the bag, its primary purpose was to meet the modern woman’s needs, as envisioned by a woman herself. Jane treated her own bag like any other: overstuffing it, never closing it, and personalising it with charms, scarves, and stickers. Most of all, it was practical, just as she’d asked.
The tale of the Birkin’s birth is fashion’s Greek myth; an epic story passed on from generation to generation of fashionistas as its legendary status only continues to grow. Over the years, the Birkin evolved from a practical day-to-day bag to a status symbol, driven by the brand’s growing focus on exclusivity and a booming resell market. A Birkin is a lifetime investment, guaranteed to increase its value and resell well over time. In this day and age, considering the loss in worth that even removing the plastic from the hardware causes, the thought of putting a sticker on it seems unfathomable, sacrilegious even. But isn’t this the opposite of what Jane had envisioned?
The latest trends want to reverse this, with more and more bags on and off the runway being shown purposefully unkempt, adorned with charms and carelessly slouchy: essentially, Birkin-ified. Brands like Miu Miu, Balenciaga, and Prada are hopping on the bandwagon as well-loved, broken-in, customisable versions are replacing stiff, visibly unused, and unnaturally pristine day-to-day bags. It’s a messy girl bag era.
The key is personalisation. No need for tacky fast fashion charms: this is the chance to dig into your mother’s jewellery box or childhood drawer and find brooches, keychains, necklaces, padlocks, trinkets, or anything that could somehow be attached to leather handles, or wrapped around– in the case of silk scarves and foulards. A bag is an extension of you and, as such, it should reflect your personality.
Whether you have a less-is-more or a more-is-more mindset, there is no wrong or right way to do this. Once you have a staple bag as your foundation, you have free rein to experiment with layered textures, colourful prints, and mixed metals. Make it nostalgic and fun!
Besides lending her name to the infamous bag, Jane Birkin has taught us how to wear clothes, not just own them. Style is not about keeping things flawless but living in and through clothing. This trend is also a reminder to take fashion a little less seriously in a world where bags are less about practicality and more about status.
A bag’s purpose is to hold the things we love, and it should feel just as personal as what’s inside it.