Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French fashion model, singer, and actress born in Paris, France on September 28th 1934. Bardot was noticed for her unique beauty early on and was invited to model in a fashion show by an acquaintance of her mother in 1949. After a few modeling gigs, the offers continued to roll in and eventually Brigitte graced the cover of Elle on March 8th 1950, at the tender age of fifteen.
It was this cover that piqued the interest of a young film director by the name of Roger Vadim who showed the issue to a screenwriter and director named Marc Allegret. Marc offered Bardot a chance to audition for the film “Les lauriers sont coupés” and although the film was later cancelled, the experience left a lasting effect on Brigitte and inspired her to consider a career in acting.
Brigitte made her debut in 1952 in a comedy film by the name of Le Trou Normand and later appeared in famous French dramatist Jean Anouhil’s stage-play L’Invitation au château in 1953. Bardot began gaining attention in the U.S. as the European film industry and its stars began to rise to the forefront of the media. All of Brigitte’s films in the early 1950’s cast her as a young, seductive siren. She was idolized by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, mentioned by name in Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Free, married four men, and posed nude in Playboy magazine to celebrate her 40th birthday.
In 1973, Bardot bowed out of the entertainment industry, intending to “get out elegantly”. She continued to work in music and theater, but never appeared in another film. She took up the advocacy of animal rights.
While Brigitte’s controversial political views have come under scrutiny in Europe, she remains to be the style icon of the 1960s. Her unmatched beauty and strong personality are what make Brigitte Bardot a living legend and resolute symbol of European glamour across the globe. Brigitte Bardot’s deconstructed beehive created a shift in the aesthetic norm and allowed for a more relaxed and effortless hairstyle to emerge, cementing her legacy as a forward thinking, fashion and beauty icon.
If you want to know how to recreate Brigitte’s signature black smokey eye, head on over to my makeup tutorial which you can find here.
No Comments