How Jane Birkin Became The Ultimate It Girl

0:27This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mao. It was so fun talking to Marissa. She goes deep on her obsessions. And I think for this book, she definitely went deep. In fact, she was in Paris when we spoke, and she was just about to go to the auction of Jane's beloved Birkenberg. I was very excited about the timeliness of this Marissa interview because on Thursday, all eyes were on the original Birkin bag, the prototype, and Sam Sussman was in the room where it happened. Reporting live. Southermese, Paris. What was the scene like? I can't even begin to imagine who was there. Was it really crowded? Was there a lot of, I mean, tell us everything.

1:17It was totally, I'll admit it, I've never been to an auction before. so didn't know what to expect. Luckily, we had coordinated some press badges so I got to go behind the velvet rope. It was smaller than I thought but the bag was right there enclosed in a glass case. Wait, the auction was smaller or the bag was smaller? No, the bag was a great size. The auction was smaller than I thought but it was incredible. So they had a few, like three rows of seats. They had a lot of cameras set up. They had a lot of people, a lot of press was there. watching this auction take place, which I think it happened.

1:58And I think Chloe emailed you at the start and at the finish of it. And I think it was 10 minutes long. I think bidding started at 1 million euros. And it was incredible to see these people fighting. You know, it's truly, they're on the phone covering their mouths so no one can know what they're bargaining or whatever they're saying. But it was going back and forth by the end by two people who were representatives representatives. I've learned so much lingo, absentee bidders. They were both representatives. One was French and one woman was Japanese. And they were going back and forth. And when there were gasps in the room, there was cheering.

2:35Wow. Catherine B., who was selling the bag, was there with a big bouquet of flowers, just, you know, so many of us. Oh, my God. This is our version of sports. It totally was. And you were there with our news editor, Anna Cofola, who is based in London and was so activated by this opportunity that she hopped on the Eurostar for the day. No way. I didn't even know that. That's so hilarious. It was so hot that day. We were sweating it out and we were in the trenches together just grabbing people to interview them. And you guys interviewed the owner of the bag, right? We did. What was, set the scene of what she was like.

3:12She sounded like quite a character. She was and I mean, it's really incredible. She had gone this bag for a much lower price than than what it ended up being auctioned for. Yeah, it was more like six figures, right, she paid, I think. Exactly. She was so happy. She said Hermes is her icon. Hermes is everything to her. Oh, my gosh. So she is just a big fan of the brand. And it was time to let it go and give it a new home. Well, can you drumroll please tell us how much it sold for?

3:44I can. It sold. The Hammer Price, another new lingo. Oh, the Hammer Price. What was the hammer price? 7 million euros. And then all in all, I think it was 8.6 with fees, a million euros, and that means$10.1 million for a U.S. listener. Wow. That is wild. So beating a record, and I don't want to get this wrong, but I believe the most expensive handbag to ever go for auction was only at around$500 ,000. So this really, people who we interviewed, we spoke to a lot of kind of people of resale companies who probably would be mad that I'm calling it that. Rehome, I think is the word. Rehome. No, get up.

4:25But they were thinking the bag was going to go for$2 million. No. Wow. $5 million more than that. Also, the street style there looked really something. There were a lot of Hermes bags in attendance. Check out Vogue magazine's TikTok to see what it really felt like in the room. Also, I saw one great image of someone with a copy of the galley of Marissa's book, which isn't out until October, in their Hermes Bergen. Wow. Stop it. Really on the nose. Wow. I mean. I hope Marissa saw that because that is amazing. Do we know anything about the person who bought the bag? So no. I mean, again, on our TikTok, there's been a lot of comments speculating, but they all say different names.

5:08It's a private Japanese collector. They sent the head of Sotheby's in Japan to bid for them. So you know they were serious. Kim Kardashian in her stories had posted all these texts she had gotten, multiple texts being like, we know it's you, but it wasn't her. It's amazing. What I learned from this experience is it wasn't about the Jane. It was more about the Birkin. It was, there weren't a lot of fans of them. Oh my God, such a good way to sum it up. There weren't a lot of fans of Jane Birkin, but there were a lot of fans of Hermes. Yeah, valuance. How have we not had you on the pod before, Sam?

5:47I've been asking. You're always on the ground. My entire life. You're always there. Also, you know what is kismet? We get Sam's front row in the room where it happened to report from the Birkin sale, plus Sam's take on the Love Island finale. Oh, my God. I thought you'd never ask. I was like, looking at my watch, I realized how much time we have left. Speaking of TikTok. When do you have time? It's so funny because Love Island is obviously a British export, something that has been here for years. I never got into it. And I've never seen so much frenzy from the U.S. because I know when it's broken through when my boyfriend asked me about it, he was like, what is Love Island?

6:26And I was like, okay. Okay, this is a thing now, the Adam test. I think the NBA finals were happening when Love Island was happening in the amount of memes I saw about boyfriends being like, we're going to watch Love Island, actually. We're not going to watch the NBA Finals. So it totally has broken through. There's a mania. I think season six was amazing, had amazing characters. Season seven was a hurricane. It was a Hurricane Huda. It was a Hurricane Hannah. It was a hurricane. There was so, it was ups and downs. And yeah, how do I have the time? I don't want to admit this on the air, but in Europe, I was staying up till 2 and 3 a.m.

7:07when the episodes aired, streaming it from TikTok because you have to have a VPN. They don't have Peacock in Europe. Oh, wow. Just so I could keep up with the group chats. Oh, wow. Stop it. You can't keep up. Stop it. How do you do it? I saw an amazing TikTok that was like when people are like, how do you have a life? It's like you rise to the – you don't have a life. If you rise to the occasion, only a certain few can keep up with one hour every night. One hour for an entire two months. No sleep, Sussman. Oh, my God. She's the anti-Dakota Johnson. Exactly. Why did this season break through? Because it's not the first season of Love Island in the U.S.

7:44It's like the sixth season. Why is everyone talking about it now? What's so special about this one? The people, it broke all the rules. It broke the mold. Season seven. There was so many twists and turns. And I think it was so America was kind of recoupling people that didn't have connections. They were voting off people that did have strong connections. The cast was also doing that. So everyone was like, what is this Love Island? It's not Exploration Island. All the rules were being broken. But the group, there were some really standout characters. And so, again, cover your ears if you didn't watch the finale.

8:22But Amaya Papaya, America's favorite one. She's New York City's own. Amaya and Brian. Googling immediately. And when you Google, she's hopefully will get a record deal because she has some amazing songs that I'll let you discover. I feel like now I've missed the moment, but I also feel like I want to tap in. And Jose did a really funny piece on, like, the look of love island. And it's this very sort of alchemical combination of fast fashion, old fashion, sexy, but powerful. I mean, it really sort of is tapping into conveying a certain look with their clothing. Wow. That was a great read because they're all there to find love.

9:11So, no, but it was so great to read it. And, you know, what they're dressing for is very specific and also very accessible, I want to say. I was always looking it up. We were spotting some Frankie's bikinis on there. There's Sheen. There's Boohoo dolls. I mean, it was very affordable. And these women and men have captivated all of America. Maybe not their hearts, but their eyes. We're watching. so I thought it was a very interesting take on the fashion and loved reading it it was wild the characters, they shocked you but Amaya truly one thing I have to say she always practiced being herself and she was like if I'm not accepted she found someone who accepted her as herself so I think that's a good message when you google her by the way your screen explodes with papayas Yes.

10:05Stop. Yes. And then a quote pops up by her just that keeps running over and over that says, I never said I was perfect. I never said I didn't have any flaws. And there's a little papaya at the end. Is that actually a sexy voice? Yeah, that was sexy. Let me tell you how it sounds. I never said I was perfect. I never said I was perfect. Oh, it's a song. It's a song. But I like how you did it. So I'll keep going. Just watch it. I like, clearly I'm out of the loop. Like, I didn't know this was a song. Like literally the lyric pops up. The whole screen was exploding with papayas. I was very confused.

10:39Choma, what have you been up to in London? I mean, the weather here is so glorious. We're having the best summer ever. I think it's like the hottest summer on record. And maybe we had the driest spring on record. So everybody's in a really good mood. I actually went to see Evita, which is the hottest ticket in town. And Rachel Ziegler stars as Evita. I mean, she is so fantastic. And one of the things that really made me want to go see it was that on my walk home every night, I walk past the theater and what she does as part of the performance is she goes onto the balcony and I couldn't understand why all of these people were standing outside the theater long after the theater had started.

11:16But they all wait for this performance and she goes out onto the balcony and like thousands of people outside of the theater listen to her sing. And it was, I was just wondering how they would pull that off with the, you know, without making, giving the people inside the theater FOMO, but actually it worked really well. What you see is this huge screen of her singing and all of the people outside, and it's just this incredible moment of theater. I mean, Jamie Lloyd, who is the director, is like a complete star, and hopefully they take this to Broadway so that you guys can enjoy it, because I think it's going to continue to have this buzz around it all summer.

11:54I love that. I mean, and we know, Evita, for the people. For the people, so timely. Yeah. Makes that work. Yeah. I also went to see this film called Hot Milk. Oh, people are talking about that. What is it? It's the same director as that movie Ida. And I remember I basically every time I want to see a movie that I've maybe never heard of, I ask my old boss, Sally Singer. I just text her and I'm like, should I go and see this movie? Because she watches every single movie. The Sally Test. Yes, the Sally Test. She's like my cultural barometer on so many things, but specifically movies. And she was like, oh, I've heard really good things about it.

12:32You should go see it. And Vicky Cripps is in it. I was like, okay, great. So I went to see it. And Emma Mackey is the lead. And she actually reminds me a bit of one of our old colleagues, Alessandra Cordina. She's breathtakingly beautiful. And she has this very intense relationship with her mother. And I won't give too much away because my friend who I went to see it with, we were both just talking about our mommy issues for the entire time after this film. I don't want to give too much away. because basically her mother suffers from this condition and you're sort of left wondering if this condition is inside her head and she's had this massive trauma from her childhood.

13:09And anyway, it is so great. And it all plays out in Spain, on the coast of Spain, and partially in Greece. So it's a good summer movie to get you in the mood. And Emma and Vicky have this kind of very intense romance. So it's very sexy. Oh, my God. And the supporting cast is like my three beloved Brits, Fiona Shaw, Patsy Farron, and Jesse Buckley all in one. Yeah, it's a really fab film. So I highly recommend, highly recommend. But I still have to see F1. Yes. And there's another film that Sally recommended that I haven't seen. Sorry Baby. Have you guys seen Sorry Baby? Yes. We're interviewing Ava Victor, the writer-director star, today for the pod.

13:54That's exciting. Now I have my summer movie list. I know. I got all those out. What have you guys been watching? What's going on over there? We know what Sam's been watching. No, but also, just you speaking about what's going on, I was in London. I got to see Lana Del Rey. I got to see Anna Carter. Oh, my God. Didn't you go with Liam? Yeah, with Liam. So the music was just overflowing over in London. Yeah, there's been a big, I mean, between Glastonbury and the Lana and Sabrina Carpenter, I mean, you got the best of it. I truly blessed. Sam, how was your trip to Couture? We didn't get to hear, we talked about Couture last week, but let's hear the suspense highlights.

14:31What were your highlights? Yeah, I mean, I got to see Choma at Celine, which was Michael Ryder's debut. So it was gorgeous. He had this massive silk foulard above the show space. And it was pooling with the rain, but it was quite, everything was still quite beautiful. They had these amazing Celine umbrellas that everyone was trying to bring home with them. We were trying to figure out how we were going to steal our umbrella, not going to lie. But it was an amazing, back to the close, it was an amazing debut from him. And obviously we wanted to wear everything. We got to meet his mother, which was amazing.

15:05She reads Vogue Runway every single day. Wow. We love that for Mrs. Ryder. Exactly. And then I have to say the end, so that was the beginning. Then the ending, Margella, was amazing. And that's one show that everyone was just obsessed by. They loved the soundtrack. They loved the clothes. It was so beautiful. It ended in a rainbow pit of balloons, but the clothing was really breathtaking. I'm very into the rainbow pit of balloons. Very. There should be more of that. Very, exactly. Bring Artie and Alice. I know. Get them in. Family fun. But he also had— Yeah, who did the Margiela soundtrack? It was someone really famous.

15:42Billy Corgan, right? Yeah, Billy Corgan. Which was amazing. Yes. Everyone was freaking out. Well, Samantha and I are off to Wyoming tomorrow for a future Vogue shoot. Yeah. Ooh, exciting. I'm going to make Chloe go to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Yeah, Sam sent me a link yesterday to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole. There's our Wednesday night. Oh, my God. It must be so beautiful there. I've never been. I've never been. Yeah, that landscape. All right. We have to wrap up. Thank you, ladies. So honored. It was so lovely to have you. Best. We love having our resident Love Island expert.

16:19And this was so much fun. We will be back with Choma's conversation with Maritza Meltzer after a short break.

16:50for the biggest prize in Hollywood. There's a hundred wrestlers in the room, but only one can be Oscar nominated. Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

17:20Where are you right now? I'm in Paris for the Birkin auction. Oh, wow. I just got here yesterday. And then today I went to the public viewing and then tomorrow is the auction itself. What did you see at the public viewing that caught your eye or surprised you? Well, it's how the people were dressed at the public viewing. Oh, tell me everything. There was like a 60-year-old man in head-to-toe Schiaparelli. Stop it. Like giant ear cuff, gold, like sort of chin length, like giant collar top. Like those, I don't know if they're scaparelli or maybe Balenciaga, those crazy long pointed like shoes that are almost like clown shoes.

18:08and he is from Poland and he is a collector, a couture collector. He wants to maybe bid and he was with like his friend who was wearing kind of like if Lynn wore Chanel, Baby Linny goes Chanel. And then... Baby Linny being Lynn Jaeger. Yes, yes. Iconic fashion writer. I'm not even friends with her. I don't know why I feel like she's Baby Linny to me as well. Isn't that her Instagram handle? It is, it is, it is. I think we get to call her Baby Lenny. And then there was like a Belgian guy who was wearing like full Ralph Lauren. Like the Ralph, the bear sweater and khakis. And had like hair that he looked like a minor royal family member.

18:58Okay. There's a lot. So there's just a lot. And then now I'm just so excited to see who shows up to the auction. I mean, one thing that struck me about the book was how uninterested or how truly bohemian Jane's attitude was towards money, that she seemed very unfazed by the fact that this bag had sort of produced this iconic frenzy. And she wasn't so, you know, it's become such a signifier of. Yeah, I think that was part of her charm because she just kind of like tra la la fell into everything. Right. So, of course, her relationship with the bag was just like, I sat next to Jean-Louis Dumas and he made me a bag and now it's the most popular bag in the world.

19:46And I cover mine with like UNICEF and free Tibet stickers. And, you know, and I think the relationship to money is similarly, you know, she grew up fairly high class, I guess. I mean, you're British, so you're probably a better interpreter than I am. But, you know, she grew up. upper middle class with a with bohemian with some sort of bohemian i mean her her mother was an actress and yeah yeah her father was military yeah and um so yeah i mean i think that it was that kind of like thinking about money was not something she ever really had to do but i also think she didn't have a ton of it and i don't think she spent a lot of it or cared that much She didn't seem to live a particularly lavish life.

20:35No, no. So Jane Birkin donated this bag to an auction for AIDS charity in 1994. Okay, that's the origin of it. In 2000, it went up for auction again. And this woman, Catherine Beunier, bought it and has had it basically, she's a collector. She has like a tiny little shop that sells collectible Hermes and Chanel accessories in Paris. And she's had it basically insured and in storage for 25 years. Wow. So she's selling it. We don't know how much she bought it for, but rumor is like$100 ,000-ish or something like that. And I mean, by the time this podcast comes out, everyone will know how much it sells for.

21:19But at least a million, if not way, way over. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I, I, cause also it's going to be what is rare these days, which is an in-person auction during Couture Week in Paris. So I think people could also just get carried away. Exactly. Cause all the right people are there to buy all the kind of people who might want something rare and beautiful and yeah, one of a kind, which is exactly what Couture is. Yeah, exactly. Do you think there's a version of the Birkin today? I mean, do you think we'll ever have a bag on this level that has this much kind of? Yeah, I think we will. I mean, I think that bags are so sort of, you know, they're made with a lot of intention these days to become an it bag or to go viral.

22:10And that's fine because fashion is a business. but I think what is cool about some of the sort of it bags of the past like the Birkin is that it had kind of a slow rollout and it took a long time to take off because it came out in like the mid 80s and didn't really become a pop culture thing until like the late 90s early 2000s and so I think it could be something like that like a minor bag like a lot of the kind of lesser Hermes bags are being rediscovered. Like everyone wants a plume, including me now. But also, you know, we're having such a crazy time of designer turnaround, as we all know. So, you know, there's all this potential for like Mathieu Blasie to like, you know, what is his next big Chanel bag?

23:00What is Jonathan Anderson going to do for Dior? You know, Bottega Veneta could have a crazy, you know, big bag. So I just think there's like, there's a lot of potential and people understand what a big business accessories is. I just love it when it's something kind of pulled from the archive and tweaks and kind of takes off in a more organic way, like the way that the Dior saddlebags kind of came back where it was like people were watching Sex and the City and they were loving that era and you could still get them kind of cheap on the secondhand market and it kind of went from like downtown younger girls and then they started making them again.

23:45Yeah, it's so true. It's so funny you said that because I actually wore one of the saddlebags from Galliano era recently and I love it. Does it have a print or what is it? It has the gold, green and red, gold and green colors. So it's that, I guess. The Rasta saddlebag. The Rasta saddlebag. I don't know whether that's PC to say, but it's the Rasta saddlebag. Well, the Jamaican inspired. The Jamaican inspired. Yeah. So I love that collection. As someone from Northern California, red, gold and green will always just be. Yeah. Rasta. Yes, exactly. It is. Red, gold and green is. So I have that. And I also have a patchwork.

24:30like one of the motorcycle Balenciaga bags I really like. Oh, those are good. Yeah. I am not, I love bags, but I'm kind of - Are you a bag person? A bag minimalist. Okay. I have a few and I wear them all the time, but I don't collect them and hoard them. I have like a couple Chanel bags, a couple Chanel evening bags. I have like a 1950s Kelly bag. Oh, nice. That I've had refurbished a thousand times. And I have like a giant Hermes oversized plume. Wow. Or not plume, picotin. Nice. And now I would love like a small black Birkin. I think that would be fun. I'd love a plume. But I don't, you know, I live in New York.

25:15And so it's like London where like your bag is kind of like having a car or something like that. Like I just want a bag that I don't have to be too fussy about. I mean, are you the kind of person who would personalize it in the same way that Jane did? Kind of love that she had like nail clippers and trinkets. Oh, and the one that they're auctioning, it still has the nail clippers on it. No, just because I'm not, I don't like jangle. You know, like I don't want to, I'm not, I'm never going to buy a Lububu. I'm not like, I don't have a custom phone case. mine is just like black rubber and I don't know it's not my mode of expression I appreciate it for other people but no I would I just want like sleek and fine I would I endeavor to be the kind of woman especially as I get older that puts like a sticker on my Birkin bag I mean I love speaking of Chloe I love how Chloe's mom has her Birkin bags and she's like doing paintings I know No, she's mentioned in the book.

26:22Yeah, in passing. And I imagine Chloe has one, if not the few. And like that would be, that to me is like, if someone wants to paint something on a Birkin for me, I would be deeply touched and I would love that. Also terrified if it went wrong. I actually think that would be cool. Like my favorite art in New York right now are these weird paintings in my gynecologist's office. there's just like all of these sort of like art nouveau meets mermaid women that are just like hanging out in pink and blue rooms I think it's so pretty and soothing and there's she has like eight of them um I really enjoyed reading your book it girl which is all about Jane Birkin I I want to ask what what inspired you to write this book well it was it's kind of a synthesis of all my nerdy interests.

27:21I went to a college that was like hippie enough that it didn't have majors, but it would have been French. And I spent my last year at university in Paris and I had taken French since I'd been a teenager. So I spoke it and I made some effort to maintain it in my life and read it. And I subscribed to French Vogue and all of that to try to, you know, have one skill from my education that I may maintain. Like, it's definitely not math or science. And so there's that, you know, I've always been into fashion. I fell in love with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's music when I was, I think, through boyfriends when I was, like, in college.

28:05And then I love telling the stories of women's lives. And I had this, I knew who she was and knew her life story, but not so much. And I knew that there was a lot to sort of get in there. Like, I think anyone for whom their name is more famous than who they are and who's more sort of known as like a muse or something, you always know there's going to be a lot under the surface. And I think I was right. So that was what inspired it. And what was the process of researching this book? How long did it take? Where did you start? I started in Paris where I am now. I know it was like really it was kind of a dream.