French Are Ahead In The Style Stakes
French actress Brigitte Bardot has been voted the most stylish woman of all time in a new UK-wide poll. The 1960s film star outscored a bevvy of beauties, including a number of dazzling British female style icons, to land the crown as the world’s most stylish woman. Brigitte polled almost three out of every 10 votes cast (29.5%) in the nationwide poll of 3,000 Brits across the UK by soft drink brand Orangina.
Legendary English rose and Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, who sadly died this year, came a very close second, with just a few percentage points between her and Bardot.
Brigitte Bardot, the former fashion model, actress and singer, is now aged 76 and is a world-renowned animal rights activist. But in her 1960s heyday she was lauded across the world as the epitome of glamorous French style and her dress sense and iconic hairstyle was copied in shops, fashion houses and hair salons in across the globe.
The poll results also illustrate that the English can’t help but admire the French for their cutting edge style. A massive 62% of those polled said that France was quite rightly renowned as the home of the most stylish women throughout history. Famous French women such as fashion queen Coco Chanel, actresses such as Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Emmanuelle Béart; and, despite being Italian by birth, former model now French president’s wife Carla Bruni, have helped establish French femmes as the leading lights in the global style stakes, according to those polled in the national study. Paris was voted as the world’s most stylish city too, beating Milan into second place, New York into third and London into fourth.
Orangina spokesman, Steven Simpson, said: “The British and the French may have had their differences historically but it is clear the French sense of style hasn’t been lost on the British. Brigitte Bardot is the epitome of classic French styling and despite being out of the limelight for all these years, she is still held up as a style icon. She was the pin-up girl for a golden age and has never been forgotten in France and, it seems, in Britain. The fact that she still ranks higher in style terms than some of Britain’s won modern style queens says it all.”
The top ten most stylish women of all time are:
1. Brigitte Bardot
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Victoria Beckham
4. Cheryl Cole
5. Joan Collins
6. Audrey Hepburn
7. Grace Kelly
8. Sophia Loren
9. Marilyn Monroe
10. Princess Diana
