Woman incarnate Bardot turns 80

Carefree sensuality oozed from every pore as Brigitte Bardot, who turns 80 on Sunday, mamboed her way to fame, leaving men weak at the knees and drawing a generation of liberated young women in her wake.

Half a century on, the big wispy hair and hourglass silhouette immortalized by the 1950s sex symbol still inspire designers the world over, though the real-life Bardot has long abandoned the limelight in favor of animal rights activism.

"She was an idol for a generation of women," says Marie-Dominique Lelievre, author of a recent biography on "BB", as Bardot became known.