Jean Seberg’s faltering first steps in Hollywood in the late ’50s led her to Europe, where she earned her most enduring epithet: darling of French new wave cinema. The Iowa-born actress may have starred in 37 films during her career, but she remains best known as American student Patricia – the girl with the gamine crop and New York Herald Tribune T-shirt – in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 breakthrough film Breathless (or, as it is known in French, A Bout De Souffle).

Jean’s penchant for slim-cut pants, men’s shirts, Breton tops, short shorts and a killer trench put her in fashion league of her own in the ’60s and, with every one of those key pieces filling up glossy style pages today, her look remains as relevant as ever.

As Breathless marks its 50-year anniversary, Handbag joins the fashion fans worldwide applauding Seberg’s elfin style by dedicating this month’s fashion icon gallery to the reluctant star who disappointed in LA, dazzled in Paris and returned triumphantly home – only to be, ultimately, eluded by happiness.

Mired in political scandal and intrigue, the actress was found dead in her car from an apparent suicide, aged just 40, in 1979. She had taken a massive overdose of alcohol and barbiturates and signed off with a note including the tragic lines, “Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.”

Picture: Jean wraps up in a striped towel as she fidgets in a bathing suit in a bucket of water on the set of Bonjour Tristesse, 1958.