Free from rigid aesthetic conventions and further away than ever from the slicked-back divas of the 1950s and 1960s, Brigitte Bardot undoubtedly changed the rules of style of an era : her way of dressing and her daily wardrobe helped create a new feminine imagery, imbued with freedom and sensuality.
We owe to BB, who passed away yesterday at the age of 91 in her villa in the hills between Cannes and Saint-Tropez , the creation of a wardrobe as essential as it was iconic: sleek, bold, and sensual. Garments and accessories that departed from the imposing creations of the Parisian haute couture ateliers of the time, and which the actress, born in Paris in 1939, loved to wear off-screen, in her daily life. Pieces that have become iconic not only of the Bardot style, but of the taste for French chic: sailor-striped tops, calf-length capri pants, full skirts, and floral sundresses in lace or lightweight linen.
And then the Bardot-necked, bare-shouldered T-shirts, a style so iconic, loved and worn both yesterday and today, that it has earned its name.
Among BB's most beloved pieces , the bikini, which will turn 80 in 2026, deserves a place of honor. It was she who, in the 1950s, contributed to the boom of the two-piece swimsuit, being photographed on the beaches of the French Riviera shortly after the release of her first successful film, "And God Created Woman" (1956), directed by her husband Roger Vadim, who had just married at the age of eighteen. We also owe to her the pleasure and taste of playing with fashion accessories. Like the idea of going out in the streets with a headband to hold back one's hair, using a straw bag to go to the beach (and not to the market to do the shopping as was the custom in the 1950s), or walking through the city streets with ballet flats on her feet. It was BB herself who asked the historic Parisian footwear company Repetto to transform a model of very light dance shoes, created for French dancers, into walking shoes.
Despite this, one of her favorite habits was strolling barefoot through the streets of Saint Tropez. And it was precisely this lifestyle that helped transform that small fishing village in the south of France into the chic holiday destination we all know. Finally, her makeup, with bold black eye makeup, and her haircut, worn very blonde with a curtain fringe (much sought after in beauty salons and fashion photoshoots), are still widely copied today.
Her style was loved precisely because it was used in everyday life, off the big screen. Although she herself said she wore her own clothes on the set of some of the more than 50 films in which she starred, directed by Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard. In 1974, she retired from the public eye and moved to her villa in the South of France, but she knew she had been a fashion revolutionary. She herself revealed her style secrets in the book "I, Brigitte Bardot," edited by Henry-Jean Servat and published in 2016 by Mondadori. "I was myself, that's all," she wrote. "Me, authentic, in my own way!"
(Unioneonline/D)