B My BB

If sensuality were a woman, it would most likely incarnate Marilyn or Brigitte; if the former exudes 1950s suggestive feminity, titillated by a touch of fragility, wide-eye innocence and tampered eroticism, the latter exhales the smouldering sensuality of the liberated 60s, with a heady blend of spiritedness, assertiveness, effortlessness and girly sassiness (a celebration of 'girl power'), while her trademark pout, sun-kissed mane and eye-liner doe-eye have been emulated the world over ever since, by female artists, fashion figures and girls next door, from Claudia Schiffer to Kate Moss, via Sienna Miller, Béatrice Dalle and Laetitia Casta.

Source: Version Femina (Corse-Matin week-end magazine supplement), inside cover, full-page advertisement from upmarket French designer bag maker Lancel, celebrating 'le Brigitte Bardot', the Bardot bag that it created in honour of the iconic French actress. (Photo by G. Dussart/ Rapho).