The death of Anglo-French actress and singer Jane Birkin this week was covered slavishly by most of the fashion press.

Many of the stories centred around the fact she has a Hermes Bag named after her, The Birkin.

It’s a sadly reductionist view of a very full and adventurous life, but it’s true that her style is and always will be iconic.

Although she was born in England, her high-profile relationship in the late Sixties and Seventies with the French singer, songwriter and composer Serge Gainsbourg positioned her as a permanent “it girl” in France, long after she was a girl, or indeed with Gainsbourg.

Her casual glamour has long been the basis of “French girl style”, a more undone, breezy and cool look.

She always looked great in jeans and T-shirts, with her long, slightly mussed hair and signature bangs.

She had that eponymous Hermes bag designed for her, but she was also famous for carrying her possessions around in a woven market basket with a flat lid.

She dressed like she didn’t really care too much, she wore barely any makeup, paired miniskirts with flat shoes, and wore lace mini dresses which, while transparent, didn’t show everything.

Her style was cool, effortless, feminine without looking overdone or seeming to try hard. This continued later in life, when she was photographed in slightly crumpled cotton shirts, trench coats, tuxedo jackets and jeans, a choppy haircut, her Birkin bag decorated with dangling charms, beaten up and well loved.

When people talk about ‘French girl’ style, it is always about the casual insouciance of it, not the plastic fantastic, nearly-naked dressing we see coming out of LA.

The French girl chic trope had to change, as diversity widens the previously narrow perimeter, but the essence of it remains.

Birkin epitomised a carefree style in jeans and t-shirts. Photo: Getty

The basis of French style is still mostly about chic restraint. They don’t do everything at once – surgery, sequins, full stage makeup, sky high heels. Sure they have facelifts, and fillers and wear Crocs and trackpants, but they don’t seem to put the G-string on display (yet).

Watching exorable US series The Idol this week, I was stunned at the outfits, or lack thereof, on actor Lily Rose Depp, whose mother, Vanessa Paradis, was herself another French ‘it girl’.

This completely sheer, in-your-face dressing has its roots in the Hollywood/LA scene, championed by Kardashians and various singers and celebrities absolutely embracing the less-is-more ethos.

But less used to mean less accessories (Coco Chanel’s “take one thing off”) or makeup (style icon Ines de La Fressange’s tip about wearing makeup in the day with jeans, wearing minimal makeup at night when in eveningwear).

It didn’t mean less clothes. I used to love runway looks when designers showed beautiful transparent skirts over big undies or visible bras, but it moved to sheer layers over G- strings, to now just G-strings and maybe some dental floss across the nipples.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it I guess. But Jane didn’t have to. She had style in spades.