The words icon and muse are often touted around the fashion world but it’s still a rare soul that encapsulates the real meaning of those monikers. Françoise Hardy, the French singer who has died at the age of 80 from cancer, was one of a handful of women who set the style tone of the second half of the 20th century, the effect of which continues to resonate.
The singer, born in Nazi occupied Paris in 1944, became synonymous with the much touted insouciant Parisian style which was a low-key cocktail of her time spent in swinging London coupled with a pared-back French sensibility. She came to London in the Sixties, recording at Pye Records’ Marble Arch studios and performing at The Savoy. Her melancholic lispish yé-yé style entranced as much as her striking girl next door beauty which captured the lenses of Richard Avedon, David Bailey and William Klein, as well as the hearts of David Bowie and Bob Dylan (who famously penned a poem about her).
