Brigitte Bardot captivated an entire era with her iconic and provocative looks, influencing fashion from the 1950s through the ’70s, when she retired from acting to dedicate herself to fight for animal rights. She died Sunday at age 91, but her influence on style lives on.
Bardot always claimed to have no particular style, and yet she’s indelibly associated with the gingham check dress, the sailor sweater, and the petticoat skirt. She set the tone for a style, an allure, that is still emblematic over 60 years later, and knew how to embrace freedom and assemble pieces with relevance. Her silhouettes were both glamorous and casual, blending the feminine and the masculine, crowned by her thick golden hair and signature fringe.
Jean Cocteau said that she “lived like everyone else, while being like no one else.” It’s hard to sum up the Brigitte Bardot effect any better. Even today, no one has been able to follow in her footsteps, leaving the French star at the top of Olympus, alone and free.
