She had a way of dressing that felt like eavesdropping on someone’s private mood — unexpected, a little raw, often gorgeous. Brigitte Bardot’s death at 91 has sent people riffling through her pictures, the way you open an old drawer and find a note you forgot you’d written. It’s tempting to make tidy lists: gowns, bikinis, controversy. But Bardot wasn’t tidy. She was restless. A style that reads now as iconic was, for her, mostly a series of choices made in the moment — sometimes practical, sometimes theatrical, sometimes stubbornly personal.
A quick note: she told us this herself. In the foreword to her fashion memoir, Henri-Jean Servat quotes her saying the “Bardot style” is really no style at all — just how she dressed, like her hair, depending on what took her fancy. That sums it up. She wore couture and she wore scraps. Elegant gowns and gypsy outfits. She wore fur for a while and then, when her life shifted toward animal advocacy, she stopped. That change didn’t come as a publicity stunt; it felt genuine. “I live the life of a farmer,” she’d say later, almost embarrassed, and the image of a movie star feeding goats — well, it’s oddly human, isn’t it? It makes the glamour less distant.
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The early years: bikinis and shock value
In the 1950s, the bikini was still a bit scandalous. Bardot wore one anyway. There’s a famous beach photograph from 1952 during the filming of a comedy called Le Trou Normand (or Crazy for Love in the U.S.) where she’s in a very floral, very revealing two-piece. People gasped, some applauded, others tutted — but it made a mark. Vogue later credited her with helping normalize the bikini’s popularity. Maybe that’s overstating it, but that image did circulate widely and it pushed a few buttons: youth, sexuality, independence. She wasn’t politely titillating; she looked like someone who’d chosen the swimsuit because she wanted to, not because it was expected of her.
There’s a slight arrogance in that choice — or perhaps confidence, or stubbornness. I like to think it’s a mix. If you look at the photos, there’s a kind of mischief in her expression, not the practiced smile of someone modelling, but a woman aware of the effect on the viewer, and not minding it.
A western dress you wouldn’t expect
Fast forward to 1971 and a promotional portrait for The Legend of Frenchie King (Las Petroleras). Bardot’s character Louise wears a Western-style gray dress with a corset and a deep square neckline. The outfit sits oddly between modesty and seduction. It’s practical for a Western, sure, but then there’s the corseted silhouette — deliberately flattering, perhaps defiantly feminine. The shot feels like costume and private wardrobe at once. She could have been in a saloon, or in a trailer having her makeup touched up — the ambiguity there is fun. Bardot’s fashion choices often read that way: they belong to a film, and to her own life, simultaneously.
Black leotard, big attitude
1959 brings us a studio portrait for A Woman Like Satan. It’s simple: a black leotard with quarter sleeves, thick belt, stockings, hair caught in a kind of messy, glamorous sweep. She poses with her hands above her head — it’s a classic, sultry posture, but the leotard is almost workmanlike in its plainness. That contrast is what sells it. It’s easy to imagine her arriving on set in something plain and then, in a minute, transforming it into an image that reads as brazen. I always find photographs like that interesting because they show how little it sometimes takes — the right angle, the right expression — to turn simplicity into something daring.
The see-through dress that shook a room
By 1969, Bardot wasn’t trying to blend in at awards nights. At the Night of the Cinema, she appeared in a sheer black gown over what looked like a sparkly bikini — and, naturally, she stood among men in suits, which made the contrast all the sharper. That dress did what bold clothes do: it made people look. It also unsettled them, because it didn’t respect the evening’s expected dress code. Again, the point isn’t shock for shock’s sake; it’s a refusal of neatness. She seems to have enjoyed the upending.
Quiet elegance and the end of an era
Near the end of her acting career — she retired in 1973 — there are softer, quieter images. A 1970 photograph shows her in a champagne-colored, spaghetti-strapped dress with a sweetheart neckline and a soft geometric pattern. It’s not loud. It’s refined, a little wistful. You can tell she’s aware of the camera’s attention but no longer hungry for it. Maybe she felt done with the whole business of performance, perhaps ready for a life that wasn’t measured in promotional shoots. This was the woman who would later tend animals and spend less time courting fashion headlines.
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Fashion, ethics, and a messy moral arc
Bardot’s relationship with clothing wasn’t merely aesthetic; it had ethics. Early-career fur, later refusal to wear it as she invested in animal activism — that shift was personal and public. For someone so photographed, that mattered. She famously declined to wear designs by Karl Lagerfeld once her foundation took a stand against fur. Again, it’s one of those human contradictions: a former model and symbol of sensuality who later becomes fiercely protective of animals, even to the point of giving up old luxuries. It’s not tidy. But it’s honest in its inconsistency.
Why these outfits still matter
The looks aren’t just garments in pictures. They are tiny scenes: a beach, an awards stage, a movie poster, a quiet garden perhaps. They track a life that kept changing — sometimes dramatically, sometimes in small, almost private ways. Bardot’s choices felt impulsive and deliberate at once. She could be glamorous and raw, theatrical and domestic. Not everything fits neatly into a narrative about style, and that’s fine. It makes her real.
In 1971, Brigitte Bardot starred in “Las Petroleras,” known to American audiences as “The Legend of Frenchie King.” Bardot was photographed in character as a woman named Louise while wearing the sultry number above. While the look definitely straddled the line between modesty and sensuality, especially for the time period, it had just enough of an edge to make our list. As you can see, Bardot donned the gray, Western-appropriate dress, complete with a corset and a deep rectangular bustline, while doing promotional shoots.
Brigitte Bardot loved wearing bikinis
Brigitte Bardot proudly donned bikinis at a time when such displays weren’t widely accepted. In fact, Vogue credited Bardot with helping usher in a steep increase in bikini wear, following her deeply controversial promotional shoot for one of her projects — a theme she repeated over her career. In 1952, for example, Bardot was photographed on the beach wearing a particularly scandalous floral bikini that left very little to the imagination while filming “Le Trou Normand,” which U.S. viewers knew as “Crazy for Love.”
Brigitte Bardot’s once wore a stunning black leotard
In 1959, Brigitte Bardot posed for a professional portrait wearing a simple, yet ultra-flirty black leotard with quarter sleeves. The photo was taken by the studio that produced her film, “A Woman Like Satan.” Bardot, who hit a chic pose that featured her hands draped over her head, paired the look with black stockings and a thick belt to show off her stunning figure. Bardot’s hairstyle — large, tousled, slightly messy curls — which she styled swept to one side of her face, also helped to elevate the daring number.
Brigitte Bardot embraced simplicity
Brigitte Bardot officially retired from her acting career in 1973, when she was just shy of turning 40 years old. However, she made the most of her remaining time in the spotlight, especially where fashion was concerned. In 1970, three years before Bardot renounced her fame, she was photographed wearing a champagne-colored, spaghetti-strapped dress with a sweetheart neckline. The look, adorned with a soft geometric pattern, was just revealing enough to make it daring — even during the more progressive ’70s.
Brigitte Bardot’s see-through dress pushed boundaries
Perhaps one of her most daring looks of all time, Brigitte Bardot made headlines in 1969 when she appeared at the “Night of the Cinema” to receive an award for her acting prowess. As you can see, Bardot’s look, which featured a sheer black dress over what appears to be a sparkly bikini-type situation, looked fashionably out of place amid the sea of suits she was standing next to. However, Bardot never cared to live up to society’s expectations of her, whether that be with her fashion or her animal activism.
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