Jane Birkin Uses Her Birkin Bag As A Cat Bed

Jane Birkin, for whom the $5,000 Hermès tote was named, has only owned four Birkins in her lifetime. “I never have more than one bag at a time. I think one is already quite enough,” she says. But they get a lot of use. “Any bag that’s with me will take the same course as I will. It will take the same airplanes and will be squashed in the same way and will be used as a cushion in the airports. There’s no fun in a bag if it’s not kicked around, so that it looks as if the cat’s been sitting on it — and it usually has. The cat may even be in it! I always put on stickers and beads and worry beads. You can get them from Greece, Israel, Palestine — from anywhere in the world. I always hang things on my bags because I don’t like them looking like everyone else’s.” She’s auctioning of the current Birkin to raise money for disaster relief in Japan. [Vogue UK]

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Steven Meisel shot Kristina Salinovic for the cover of Vogue Italia’s April issue. [FGR]

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• Inès de la Fressange, on who should replace John Galliano at Christian Dior: “I’d like Guillaume Henry, from Carven, to have the job. In ten years every company will be fighting over him. But I think we might be disappointed.” [Vogue UK]
• Style.com, meanwhile, is looking for the answers in the stars. The astrological charts of those designers who have been rumored to be in the running to replace Galliano were scoured for clues. Conclusion? Apparently Haider Ackermann might be sitting pretty by dint of being an Aries. [Style.com]
• Bernard Arnault, the head of Dior‘s parent company, owns a $35 million island in the Bahamas. [WWD]
• Designer Christophe Decarnin is leaving Balmain. Decarnin has been absent from the house since January — tongues wagged in Paris last month when Decarnin, whose tight, sparkly, and incredibly expensive collections for the label have proven editorial and celebrity catnip, didn’t even show up to Balmain’s fashion show. (The C.E.O. said at the time Decarnin was “resting” because he was “tired”; other sources said he was seeking in-patient treatment for depression.) Stylist Melanie Ward may replace Decarnin. [On The Runway]
• Oscar de la Renta: “I think you have to be elegant naked to be elegant dressed. It’s about feeling good about yourself. Taking care of yourself.” [Fashionista]
• Vivienne Westwood says she decided to open her first and only U.S. store in Los Angeles — which she calls “the land of milk and honey and oranges” — instead of in New York for two reasons. One, she wanted more celebrities to wear her clothing on the red carpet. (Logical enough, really: What star wouldn’t want to look as gorgeous and put-together as Helena Bonham-Carter?) And two, Vivienne Westwood fucking hates New York. “I don’t actually like New York. New York people are a bit stuck up and self important, and think that just the fact that they live in New York makes them better than anybody else. Sometimes there, you feel trapped by the concrete, and for me that means being trapped by the myth of Superman and American foreign policy and all these dreadful things that have done so much harm in the world.” [W]
• Westwood told Fox news that climate change could make L.A. uninhabitable within 25 years, if current trends continue, so Fox dug up some “expert” to say, “The claims of global warming catastrophe, they are mostly made up.” [Fox]
• Gap C.E.O. Glenn Murphy‘s pay rose by 18%, to $5.9 million, last year. Ann Inc. (the new name of Ann Taylor) C.E.O. Kay Krill received a 13.4% pay increase, to $10.3 million. [WWD]
• Sales of jeggings rose by over 200% from 2009 to 2010. Surely this means the trend is finally over, and it is safe to wear pants again. [Technorati]
• Stefano Tonchi‘s relaunched W magazine is nominated for three awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors. Vogue is nominated for one. [WWD]
• Abercrombie & Fitch, having finally, it seems, turned around a very long and severe sales slump, has announced bullish projections for company growth. By 2015, it projects revenues will reach $7.5 billion. (2010 revenues were $3.75 billion.) Same-store sales also rose a healthy 7% in 2010. [WWD]
• Fashion-y outerwear brand Moncler intends to list on the Italian stock exchange in June. The company believes the IPO will value Moncler at around $1.5 billion. [WWD]
• Patricia Field and Kotex are holding a competition to redecorate the maxi-pad, which they consider offensively and boringly white. [NYDN]