"Brigitte Bardot Invents Topless Beach"

[herr_0berst]

Saint-Tropez, Côte d'Azur, c. 1967

If anybody must get credit for popularizing the bikini in the world it is Brigitte Bardot. The bikini becomes such an integral part of Bardot's career that she becomes The Bikini Girl. It is somewhat less known that BB played an important role in taking a step further and popularizing topless sunbathing. As Bikini Science puts it: "Brigitte Bardot Invents Topless Beach" [www]: At Cannes, the site of a major international film festival, a horde of obliging movie starlets doff their tops and vie for the riotous attention of a horde of photographers snapping their pictures--and sending the message around the world. The monokini movement gains momentum when young French actress Brigitte Bardot introduces topless sunbathing at the Byblos Hotel in St. Tropez in 1967. Same claim is made in a Telegraph article few years back: The beaches where Brigitte Bardot first introduced the world to topless sunbathing are undergoing a mass cover up as French women ditch their penchant for a little harmless nudity. which, rather unfortunately, also informs us that -so to speak- the tide is changing. But according to another somewhat more recent Telegraph report not everything is lost just yet :) Le Roi topelss est mort, vive le Roi topless! [[ HQ ]] Brigitte Bardot in now famous bikini in Cannes in 1953. [[ LQ ]] Brigitte Bardot topless in French Rivera circa 1967

Cannes, 1953