Sneak Peek: Brigitte Bardot My Life in Fashion by Henry-Jean Servat

I invented fashions by never following fashion. Sometimes I caused a scandal!”
—Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot, one of the world’s most recognizable icons, brought a sea of change to the worlds of fashion, cinema, and popular culture. Discovered at the age of fourteen by a magazine editor, her career blossomed as the world emerged from the ashes of World War II. She found fame and admiration on the big screen in the 1950s, and became a fiery sex symbol. In Brigitte Bardot: My Life in Fashion, journalist and Bardot authority Henry-Jean Servat has assembled a tribute to the actress’s lifelong relationship with la mode.

Over the course of her career, all of the great French designers—including Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, and Pierre Cardin—outfitted Bardot on- and off-screen. In photographs that capture her attending receptions for Queen Elizabeth II or Charles de Gaulle, on glamorous visits to the United States, in fashion shoots, on film sets, or relaxing on a grassy field, this volume illustrates all the key looks that Bardot wore and brought to the international spotlight as she invented and edited her own highly imitated style, many of which remain “steal this look” options today.

In an extensive and extremely rare interview, accompanied by her personal comments on the images selected for the book, Bardot explains the context of the often vanguard fashions she wore, making headlines wherever she went. Evoking French style and the glamour of St. Tropez, her legacy endures—from ballerina slippers with sweeping skirts to figure-hugging knitwear, gingham fabrics, and gypsy dresses, and from kohl eyeliner to tousled hair.

Brigitte Bardot: My Life in Fashion presents a fascinating survey of fashion history from the late-1940s through the mid-1970s all seen through the eyes of a legend that shaped it. In Bardot’s own words “I’m proud I created a style that doesn’t go out of fashion—because I was never fashionable!”