Jane Birkin Explains How Serge Gainsbourg Inspired Her Signature Style


Jane Birkin's '60s style is now iconic - and she has explained how her famous partner, French musician Serge Gainsbourg, influenced her look during their relationship. Jane reveals that Serge was interested in fashion design, and the couple would regularly visit the various Parisian fashion houses to buy her new outfits: "Serge liked to go to fashion houses, and we used to go and watch the girls parade in the dresses and decide what I would wear and not wear, say, to Maxim’s for the New Year or something. So it was Saint Laurent, maybe, and I had my basket and boys’ shirts. But in 1968, it was too much. I had the make-up and the short dress, all Mary Quant and Swinging ’60s. Now I wish someone had made me change a bit; if someone had only told me to get rid of the eye make-up sooner! I had to wait until I did films like Je t’Aime Moi Non Plus and Dust, I suppose - it was nice because then you looked like what you looked like in the morning." 

 She adds the couple were not afraid to experiment with their styles, and they would often dress very casually even for nights out, which was unacceptable then but they were never denied entry to clubs because of Serge's fame: "If I wanted to be barefoot and wear a mackintosh, I would do it. I didn’t give a hoot. And Serge and I would go to the nightclubs - we could have gone in our pyjamas, but we wore T-shirts and jeans, and we’d say to people, 'Oh, come along,' but they weren’t let in. We were. I got away with a lot of things because people loved Serge. We didn’t have to conform in any way."



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