Dream of your ideal wardrobe. Think ballet pumps, little dresses and narrow black trousers. Dream further of polo necks, simple raincoats, full skirts gathered at the waist and suddenly youre thinking of Audrey Hepburn. From the moment she burst onto the screen, her elf-like face and ballerina-thin figure became the envy of a new generation of women, fed up with the curvaceous blondes who went before her.
Audrey not only looked like a girl, she dressed like one. Her natural fashion sense and passion for clothes turned her into the last word in chic.
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Designers nowadays, are plundering Hepburns movies for inspiration, reviving everything from black trousers worn with shiny loafers, to superbly tailored suits with boxy jackets and calf-length skirts. In the original 1954 film, Sabrina, Hepburn was dressed for the role (and for the rest of her life) by the French designer Hubert de Givenchy, who made the most of her size 8 figure with clinging black evening dresses. Audrey looked so breathtakingly beautiful that she became an A-list star.
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In the film she played a princess who, fed up with the royal protocol, runs away with a commoner (Gregory Peck) to dance on canal boats and skip through the back streets of Rome in frilly skirts. The film was a godsend to Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, who won an Oscar for her efforts.
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Head used flat shoes, gathered cotton skirts and plain blouse with the sleeves rolled up to try and make Audrey look dowdy. However, if Head was trying to make Audrey plain, she failed. After Roman Holiday women rushed out to buy fullskirts, tailored blouses and wide belts.
By the time Head and Hepburn were ready to begin work on Sabrina, Hepburn realized she was a star and wanted a bigger say about what she wore. She decided that she wanted the 26 year-old Givenchy to work with her in the film.
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The bare-shouldered evening dress he designed for Hepburn became one of the most famous dresses ever worn by Audrey, and was copied around the world.
Despite the success of Sabrina and the fact that Audrey became a life-long friend and follower, Givenchy did not work on a Audrey Hepburn film again until she starred in what is probably the best fashion film ever made, the 1957 musical Funny Face.
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For this film Givenchy designed Audreys fashionable wardrobe while Head dressed her in the bookshop clothes. The wardrobe took months to design and make. Audrey loved to try things.
After the success of Funny Face the names Hepburn and Givenchy were cast in stone.
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Hepburns fashion sense was effortless and elegant. It will remain forever timeless Although she died in 1993 at the age of 63 her style lives on.
