Common law has it that it's best not to meet your heros as they are sure to let you down, well not Miss Jane Birkin, who is one of our TOP style icons and who was utterly fabulous when we bumped into her at Miller Harris on Fashion's Big Night Out on Wednesday night.
Not only did she sit and chat to us for ages, telling us about how she created her Miller Harris perfume (TWR "So do you wear your perfume then?" JB "Heavens no! I never wear perfume and really I wanted to make a perfume that smelt of nothing…..") but she also gave us some sartorial tips.
Jane doesn't wear socks with her shoes, she showed us her scruffy Converse hi-tops and said she combats cold feet by lining all her shoes with sheepskin. eh? "I buy all my shoes half a size too big, that way they are more comfortable and when I line them with sheepskin soles (she makes her own) they fit nice and snug, I'm wearing sheepskin in my shoes now" and with a flourish she raised her shoe to be photographed.
She also ties bold coloured satin ribbons to her trousers (gold and bronzy-red) and threads on her house keys so she doesn't loose them. This is an ideas TWR may copy as we are always loosing keys/phones/reading glasses/pens and might even think of designing a belt to cope with everything (too Morris Dancer-y?).
She has a scruffy skinny chicness to her that we envy and admire, hair piled up and held with a couple of randomly placed tortoise shell clips and hardly any make up just a slash of red lippy. Tiny reading glasses perched on her nose, grey baggy sweater over a grey Martin Margiela T shirt, grey combats and her previously mentioned Converse. Not at all grand or precious but oozing understated style. 
Wow. Cool, without a doubt.
I love the idea of ribbons with keys adorning trousers and so on. If you want to avoid the Morris Dancer look though you should go for a chatelaine chain. We have a beautiful silver 19th century version in our handling collection at the Geffrye Museum. Worn at the hip it has, gorgeously dangling from its clasp, little scissors, a tiny notebook, keys and a thimble. I’d love a 21st century version with keys, pens, phone etc.