^ Lovely pictures, do you know when her suicide attempt was? So sad
Brigitte Bardot, the first size zero
And God created woman ...
But looking at this extraordinary photograph of a teenage Brigitte Bardot, it seems He didn't have quite enough material to go round.
Her waist is so tiny it appears her hands would fit round with a little to spare. In fact a bracelet rather than a belt might have been a more fitting accessory.
The then unknown 19-year-old actress is showing off what could easily be the size zero figure so much at the forefront of debate about health and fashion today.
The photograph was taken on the beach at Cannes in 1955 when Miss Bardot made her first appearance at the film festival there.
It emerged yesterday among a number of shots released to mark the festival's 60th anniversary.
The 1950s are more commonly associated with the curvier look of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner.
Bardot is said to have boasted hour-glass statistics of 36-20-35 in 1956 during the filming of And God Created Woman, the Roger Vadim classic that made her one of the world's best known sex symbols. Other reports suggest her waist was a mere 19 inches.
In this photograph it appears her astonishing figure is not assisted by a corset, although the belt does appear to be buckled up particularly tightly.
BB, as she became known, retired from acting at 39 and has since been involved with various animal rights causes. Today she is barely recognisable as the pouting blonde of her heyday and owes her looks to years of St Tropez sunbathing and a desire not to hide the fact she is 72.
The fashion for painfully thin models was highlighted earlier this year when the British Fashion Council refused to ban size zero models from London Fashion Week's catwalks.
Size zero, an American measurement that equals a British size four, fits a 22-inch waist - the average size of an eight-year-old girl.
Extremely thin models were banned from appearing at the Madrid fashion shows last year. Unlike their British counterparts, Spanish organisers refused to let those with a BMI rating of less than 18 take to the catwalks out of concern for their health.
Source:
Daily Mail
