Fashion Designers And Their Muses Through The Decades

Hermès and Jane Birkin

The eponymous Birkin bag, still one of the surest signs of status and style today, was actually conceived after a clumsy run-in with the film star. In 1981, Jean-Louis Dumas, creative director and chief executive of Hermès, was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London when her straw carry-on toppled over and spilled its contents to the plane floor. As the story goes, she explained to Dumas that she could never quite settle on a weekend bag she liked and so, in 1984, he created the roomy, leather carry-all for her.

Available in a range of sizes, colors, and leathers—from ostrich to crocodile—the Birkin remains infamously expensive and exclusive, continuing to make headlines almost three decades after its creation. (Who can forget Tyler Shields and Francesca Eastwood's "artistic destruction" of one just last year?)

[Photo, Jane Birkin via, Francesca Eastwood via]