Most of us are already packing for the beach. The season has started and it is time to show off. Whether at Saint Tropez, Copacabana, Venice beach, Ibiza or Goa we all want to look our best. And what better way to inspire us than a look back at the most legendary bikinis and bikini bodies in history.

Brigitte Bardot

"..And God Created woman": Although Brigitte Bardot did not create the bikini, it was her who popularized it with her stunning curves back in 1956.

In the erotic melodrama "And God created woman", Bardot played a sensuous actress intimately involved with three men. This sizzling film helped to establish Bardot as an international star. Maybe it was not only her archetypal blonde sex kitten figure, but also her sultry allure which made her a big star and made women all over the world want to wear a bikini and made of Saint Tropez an international glamour site. When she moved to the sleepy fishing village of Saint Tropez, she made it the new place to be seen.

The film was heavily edited to conform to censorship, despite not showing what Bardot -a nymphet with a voracious sexual appetite- does in bed but what she might do that drove the three principal male characters into an erotic frenzy.

"One Million Years B.C." (1966) is Rachel Welch's most renowned film, mainly because of her fur bikini?

Ursula Andress

The belted bikini of Swiss actress Ursula Andress playing Honey Ryder in James Bond's "Dr. NO" is an all time classic. A major sex symbol of the 60s, there is not one man who had not fantasized with Ursula coming out of the water singing the famous "calypso". The scene made Ursula into an icon. Forty years later in "Die another day" (2002) Halle Berry repeated the scene with the same belted bikini that still drove men into a frenzy!

Halle Berry

Halle Berry played Bond girl Jinx in "Die another day" (2002) famously recreating Ursula Andress scene as an homage. The bikini scene was shot in Cadiz, Spain. According to an ITV news poll, Jinx was voted the fourth toughest girl on screen of all time. That same year, she was voted number 1 in FHM's list of 100 sexiest Women in the World.

In 1998 Playboy named Halle Berry among the 100 Sexiest Women of the Century and she has been on People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World list endless times. And if you think that bikinis are only for the young, probably you did not know that Halle Berry topped In Touch magazine's list of the world's Most Fabulous 40-Something Celebrities.

A sex symbol for a short period after her appearance as Princess Leia wearing a golden metal bikini in "Return of the Jedi". Carrie Fisher has remained a pop culture icon. Less known but not less successful is Fisher's accomplished writing carer as a novelist and script writer.

It was "10" (1979), a romantic comedy directed by Blake Edwards who gave Bo Derek superstar and sex symbol status. The film was considered trend-setting at the time, and it was one of the year's biggest box office hits. Not only was Bo Derek's swimwear copied, but also her beaded and plaited hairstyle in the film was copied by women around the world.

Marilyn Monroe's fame as a sex star began in the late 1940s, and lasted through the 50s and 60s. This is the first known picture of Marilyn Monroe modelling a two-piece swimsuit. It is most likely taken in a Hollywood backyard when Marilyn was about 19 years old at the very beginning of her modelling career.

Banks was the first African American woman on the cover of Sports Illustratedt Swimsuit Issue. She was also the first African-American chosen for the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalogue.