The enduring style of Brigitte Bardot
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot was not so much about the clothes, as the lack of them. The symbol of free spiritedness, her importance to fashion cannot be underestimated. Until her rise to fame in the early \'50s, Western women were rarely seen without heels and a hat, in structured clothing and set hair (think Betty Draper in Mad Men).
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Bardot broke free of these restrictions, wearing ballet pumps, loose, tousled hair and short dresses to show off her famously perfect legs. She made the bikini famous with an appearance on the beach in Cannes in 1953. Save for her cat\'s eye make-up and a glossy pout, her face was bare.
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From Kate Moss to Lindsay Lohan to Amy Winehouse, everyone channels Bardot. But no one has since been able to quite capture her potent allure of sex, gracefulness and joie de vivre.Here, Handbag looks at the enduring style of celebrity fashion icon Brigitte Bardot.
Birth of the bikini
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot first came to the attention of the paparazzi during the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. She also helped bring the new bikini to worldwide attention.
The legs have it
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
The embodiment of sexual freedom, Bardot twirls for the paparazzi and shows off her famous legs at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955.
Blonde ambition
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Bardot preferred light summer dresses to haute couture, which she teamed with her beloved ballet flats.
Beach babe
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
At the height of her fame during the \'60s, it was estimated that 40 per cent of conversation in France was about Bardot, or ‘Bardotlaterie\'. Here, she is the original beach babe, in a bikini and a sun hat.
Fashion cycle
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Easy style was Bardot\'s trademark, as this picture of her in jeans, a man\'s jumper, ballet flats and a straw boater, shows.
Dance fever
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
As a girl Bardot trained in ballet. The dancer\'s wardrobe of leotard, tights, hairband and flats were always a part of her look.
Fashion coaterie
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
On a trip to London in 1966, wearing a short coat over a stripey dress and flat knee-high boots.
Barefoot Bardot
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Leaving a dinner at Maxim\'s in Paris in 1967, with husband Gunter Sachs, Bardot wears a stripey ankle-length kaftan (and shows her fondness for bare feet).
His \'n\' hers
celebrity style,Fashion icon,Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
In her home of St Tropez in 1971 with then boyfriend Christian Kalt. A hippyish vibe has crept in to her outfit of trousers, battered boots and oversized sunglasses.
