British-born singer-actor Jane Birkin, who found fame in France and inspired an iconic designer handbag, has died in Paris age 76.

The English-French star was best known for her 1969 hit, the sexually explicit Je t’aime … moi non plus, with then-lover French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.

She was also considered a style icon who inspired the Birkin handbag, designed by Hermes in 1984. It remains a desired luxury tote that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The French culture ministry confirmed the death of the “timeless French-speaking icon” .

Le Parisien newspaper and BFM television reported Birkin had been found dead at her home, citing people close to her.

Birkin had a mild stroke in 2021 after suffering heart problems in previous years.

Tweet from @gearykeohane

A 1960s wild child who became a beloved figure in France, Birkin had lived in her adopted France since the break-up of her marriage to British composer John Barry in the late 1960s.

Apart from her singing and roles in dozens of films, she was a popular figure in France for her warm nature, and stalwart fight for women’s and LGBT rights.

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in London in 1946, daughter of British actor Judy Campbell and Royal Navy commander David Birkin.

Before venturing across the Channel aged 22, she achieved notoriety in the controversial 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow-Up appearing naked in a threesome sex scene.

But it was in France that she truly shot to fame, as much for her love affair with tormented national star Gainsbourg, as for her tomboyish style and endearing British accent when speaking French, which some said she cultivated deliberately.

The Birkin bag was born after a chance encounter on a flight from Paris to London when she sat next to Jean-Louis Dumas, the executive chairman of Hermès.

Birkin complained that she couldn’t find a bag suitable for her needs as a young mother.

“A born creator with a keen eye, [Dumas] immediately sketched a supple and spacious rectangular holdall with a burnished flap and saddle stitching,” the Hermes website says.

“With a dedicated space for her baby’s bottles!”

Birkin was the mother of actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, photographer Kate Barry, with her first husband John Barry; and musician Lou Doillon, with Jacques Doillon.