In many ways, Jane Birkin was the ideal subject for Marisa Meltzer.

“I knew just enough about her that I knew why I was drawn to her,” the writer says over a Zoom call on a recent morning. “She was at the intersection of movies and music and fashion; she was an outsider in Paris; she was in the middle of the Swinging ’60s in London but she was also in this sort of loose ’70s in Paris, which are two really exciting eras of culture. But I didn’t know so much about her that I felt like I had a preconceived notion [about her].”

The same is likely true for most when it comes to Birkin. She is known for her relationship as a muse: to Serge Gainsbourg, to the famous Hermès bag named for her, to the fashion industry. Yet until Meltzer’s new book, her life had yet to be fully examined.

Meltzer,

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