Jane Birkin shelves ‘heavy’ Birkin bag

Jane Birkin rarely carries her namesake Hermes bag as she finds it to be very “heavy”. 
The British actress and singer had the now infamous bag dedicated to her by French fashion house Hermes in 1984, after she met the label’s chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London a couple of years prior.
Jane complained that she couldn’t find the perfect leather bag, so Jean-Louis offered to make her one and called it the Birkin bag. However, it appears the luxury tote no longer meets Jane’s needs.
“(I fill my bag with) junk… and half the furniture from (my) house, it’s a very, very heavy bag,” Jane told the BBC of her handbag.
“Now I fill my pockets like a man, because then you don’t actually have to carry anything.”
Most fashion fans disagree with Jane though, as owning a Birkin has become a status symbol and the bag can retail for up to $125,000 (£100,000). There are always long waiting lists to purchase a Birkin, with stars like Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez regularly spotted with one on their arm.
And when it comes to her famous shopper, Jane can’t believe people find it more fascinating than her sensual 1969 record Je t’aime, moi non plus, which she recorded with her former lover Serge Gainsbourg.
“It’s a rather extraordinary record,” she smiled. “Perhaps more interesting than the bag.”
This isn’t the first time the 70-year-old has shunned the bag; in 2015 she ordered Hermes to remove her name from its famous item after becoming concerned over how crocodiles were farmed to supply the company with leather.
Hermes looked into the matter, citing an isolated irregularity at the slaughter farm it used in Texas, and announced soon afterwards that it had satisfied Birkin with new reassurances on the sourcing of the material.