Anyone who has seen “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” gets it: the indelible and enduring impact of Audrey Hepburn on modern fashion. For decades, her clean style sensibility and radiant grace have inspired the likes of Hubert de Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo and Isaac Mizrahi, all of whom have tried at some point to translate her spirit into their clothing and accessories.
Even after her death in 1993, her status as a style icon still remains. Mary Quant called her the “most stylish woman who ever lived”. Hubert de Givenchy, the designer who was perhaps most closely linked with Hepburn, initially rejected her pleas to design for her because of her “unfashionable” gamine-like figure and flat chest, not considered the desired fashionable shape in the 1950’s. Of course, Givenchy changed his tune after Hepburn’s turn in his designs for the film “Sabrina” put him on the international fashion map. After that, the designer and his muse were a fixture for decades and Givenchy referred to Hepburn as, “a gift from on high”.
Today Audrey Hepburn still influences major stars, including Victoria Beckham, Johnny Depp and the Olsen twins, all who have named her as a major influence. Even at the height of her career, when she was universally reckoned to be the most beautiful woman in the world, Audrey Hepburn thought she was “funny looking – just another skinny broad” with crooked teeth, thick eyebrows, a bony collarbone, flat chest and huge eight-and-a-half size feet.
“I never thought I’d land in pictures,” she once said, “with a face like mine.” But whatever part she played, her physical appearance was always captivating. And it was her performance in Breakfast at Tiffany’s that really solidified her place in the fashion world. Her pearl choker and gloves may have set off the outfit perfectly. But it was Audrey Hepburn’s “little black dress” that became an icon. And, despite the passage of time, the stunning frock the movie star wore in that film in 1961 has stayed firmly in fashion.
Audrey Hepburn was the epitome of late 1950’s glamour – the decade where style was born – a time when elegance was the cornerstone of fashion. Whether in a black cocktail dress, or jeans, a turtleneck and flats, she always looked impeccable. Ask a woman to name her fashion icon, and the answer is likely to be Audrey Hepburn. In “How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life,” author Melissa Hellstren writes, “Her style, and its evolution, simultaneously defies and defines fashion. Hers was a closet built on quality, not quantity. The pieces were deceptively simple – a black dress, a white wrap blouse, a tasteful suit. Not always the latest, simply the best.” And timeless, which defines the Audrey Hepburn style.
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