by “If you start realizing that you have fun, life can be delightful,” said Jane Birkin. She spoke about champagne – but would have spoken about her popular basket, which is now probably the summer accessory.
“It is such a strange story, because it doesn’t really work as a useful bag,” says fashion historian Tony Glenville. The then CEO of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas, apparently observed the content of one of Birkin’s baskets that spilled to London on a flight in France in 1984.
Apart from design errors, the high street is flooded with baskets: Next, new look, mango and M&S do cut-price versions offer. Luxury fashion is also on the Wicker car, the most sought-after version that comes from the Spanish luxury brand Loewe. In the past three months alone, the search for Loewe’s Raffia bags has risen by 1600% on Net-A porters.
“It is like a trend that never went out of fashion,” says Sarah Corbett-Winder, a fashion styleist who “embarrassed, at least 40” basket bags. “It has the way to Jane Birkin, and I think that only does it forever” … she is just so iconic. “
Glenville is about what these bags signal. “They say: ‘I’m a bit creative, I also like a picnic and I just packed these delicious straw bags from the indoor table in my country house or in my Chateau.”
Corbett-Winder also believes that “there is probably unconsciously a connection to this kind of era and this time; it was only very carefree” and “this French girls that we all love massively”.
While the leather Birkin is one of the most expensive bags in the world, the basket can be one of the most affordable.
It also helps that there are many different styles. The market buyer – spacious and normally with leather straps – is most frequently sighted and probably practical. Birkin herself chose a rigid, almost egg -shaped fishing basket.
Although the bags are connected to the south of France, there are very few basket manufacturers there these days. According to a representative of Terre D’ignen’s tourist agency, it is “not a very lucrative job”. In the municipality of Vallabrègues, where there is a basket museum: “At the beginning of the 20th century, you could count up to 400 basket manufacturers in the village. Nowadays there are only one left,” they said.
We can expect baskets to continue to thrive because they are the epitome of summer. But will we ever see them out of the house in the colder months? Glenville doesn’t think. “You would never use them after September or before Easter,” he says.
But Corbett-Winder tried it. “I feel, I work, but not so well,” she says.
