The fashion of actress Audrey Hepburn, both on and off-screen, has impacted trends and pop culture, and she is considered a style icon. [1]
The fashion of actress Audrey Hepburn, both on and off-screen, has impacted trends and pop culture, and she is considered a style icon. [1]
I remember the beautiful evening dresses: Givenchy always, and Valentino in Rome ... pea-coats in the winter, collars turned up ... square-toed boots in the 1970s, cotton pants and Lacostes in the summer, ballet slippers and a long robe around the house in the morning.
Hepburn's style, subject to prominence after her rise to fame in the 1950s, was associated with timelessness and tailoring. [3] Hepburn had a confident sense in her own manner of dressing, and sought simple, refined pieces to emphasize her silhouette and profile. [4] She believed that women should find their own complementary "look", rather than rely on trends, and accessorize it seasonally. [2] Hepburn invested in quality pieces, and put intentional thought into her ensembles by occasion. [2] She admired simple lines and elegant looks, designed to complement her, rather than stand out. [2] Hepburn veered toward underdressing, rather than overdressing, saying that "it is better to be the only one in a blazer at a black-tie event then be the only one in black tie at a blazer event". [2]
Pieces associated with her brand of fashion included cigarette pants, black polo necks, trench coats, marinières, headbands, waist belts, ballet flats, oversized white shirt, the indigo jean, the gingham trouser and head scarves. [5] She also frequently wore sheath dresses, bateau necklines, cropped pants, emphasized waistlines, and button-downs. [6] [7] She occasionally wore suits and trousers, but often accentuated the look with accessories to preserve a feminine touch. [8] Her fashion has been referred to as sophisticated, minimalist, elegant, polished, and mod. [5] [9] [10] [11] Hepburn typically chose a muted palette of black, white, beige, and pink, which emphasized the darker undertones of her eyes and hair. [12] She "compensated" for her height by wearing ballet slippers and flat shoes. [11] She frequently wore patterns of stripes and gingham. [11] [13] Her "daily uniform" consisted of slack trousers or skirts paired with a blouse. [12] Academic Rachel Moseley describes the combination of "slim black trousers, flat ballet-style pumps and a fine black jersey" as one of her signature looks alongside little black dresses, noting that this style was new at the time when women still wore skirts and high heels more often than trousers and flat shoe. [14]
Hepburn stated that fashion "came into her life" upon her first meeting with Hubert de Givenchy, whom she regarded as a "creator of [her] personality". [3] She became his muse, [15] [16] and the two became so closely associated with each other that academic Jayne Sheridan has stated, "we might ask 'Did Audrey Hepburn create Givenchy or was it the other way around?'" [17] The pair conceptualized Hepburn's "signature" ensemble - a bateau neckline dress with a fitted bodice and full skirting. [18] The ensemble, dubbed "The Hepburn Look", popularized Givenchy's minimalist tailoring and boosted sales. [12] Givenchy created the evening gown she wore to the 1954 Academy Awards, a white lace ensemble with an ivory full skirt that Hepburn referred to as her "lucky dress". [19] Givenchy also designed her second wedding gown, a light-pink polo neck mini dress, worn in a ceremony to Andrea Dotti. [5] Rather than borrow clothes, she owned her wardrobe and paid full price for Givenchy's creations. [12] [20] From 1956, Hepburn's contract stipulated that she would be dressed by Givenchy in all contemporary-set films. [21] Hepburn herself stated that Givenchy "gave me a look, a kind, a silhouette. He has always been the best, and he stayed the best. Because he kept the spare style that I love. What is more beautiful than a simple sheath made an extraordinary way in a special fabric, and just two earrings?" [22]
She developed an association with Valentino upon her move to Rome, where she was often photographed by paparazzi. [15] [23] Hepburn was close to shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, and opined that quality shoes could be worn in tandem with simple clothing. [2] She also wore Ralph Lauren for much of her off-duty looks later in life. [12]
Hepburn's debut, Roman Holiday , where she played a mid-century, run-away princess, featured a minimalist wardrobe, with her gamine looks considered watershed for the time. [24] Her character appeared in corseted taffeta gowns before transitioning into belted midi skirts, lace-up sandals, feminine cotton blouses, ballet flats, and printed silk scarves. [25]
Her collaboration with Givenchy in the film Sabrina (1954), where she was cast as the titular chauffeur's daughter, determined classic elements central to her wardrobe that "defined her image" for the duration of her career. [15] Through originally to be designed by Edith Head, director Billy Wilder sent Hepburn to Paris to peruse authentic Parsian designs, which led her to meet Givenchy. [15] The numbers chosen personally by Hepburn included: a gray, Oxford-wool, double-breasted skirt suit with a scoop neck, cinched waist, and vented skirting, and a strapless white ball gown with floral organdy embroidering and a cascading train of black ruffles, as well as a black cocktail dress with a button, down, deep-v back, and flared, ballerina-length. [15] The final dress featured a bateau neckline that became popularly known as the décolleté Sabrina, or Sabrina neckline, which Hepburn became fond of as it emphasized her shape rather than her thinness. [15]
One of her most-worn ensembles premiered in Funny Face (1957), where her character, a studious Beatnik librarian, comes out of her shell. [24] [25] Hepburn wore a black polo neck, a taupe trench coat, black trousers, and black penny loafers for scenes in France. [24] [25] She also wears a vermillion satin gown alongside white opera gloves. Hepburn plays a demure conservatory student in Love in the Afternoon (1957), which features outfits with "preppy feminine charm", such as bold knit cardigans, striped trousers, a-line cotton sundresses, and hair ribbons. [25]
The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's , where Hepburn portrays high-class café society girl Holly Golightly, has been reported to exemplify the cinematography and fashion of the decade. [26] [27] In the opening scene, filmed on Fifth Avenue, Hepburn wore a little black dress, regarded as one of the most iconic in cinema, inspiring several imitations. [26] [25] It is a sheath, satin full-length gown with minimalist cutouts, paired with sunglasses, kitten heels, a multi-layered pearl necklace and a hair brooch. [26] [3] Other outfits worn in the film include an oversized white men's shirt, paired with a turquoise sleep mask, [3] a silk cocktail, scoop-neck, feathered hem minidress, [26] a pair of straight-leg jeans worn with a simple sweatshirt, [27] a bedsheet fashioned to be worn as a party dress, [28] a knee-length hot pink sleeveless frock, embroidered with a sweeping bow and small rhinestone fans, [29] Breakfast At Tiffany's is considered to be Hepburn's most defining film, and cemented her status as a style icon. [3] [20]
My Fair Lady (1964), featuring Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, tracks her character's transformation through fashion, and includes the emblematic ensemble of a white lace gown with lavish ribbon trimming, paired with a complimentary umbrella of tulle and wide-brim black-and-white hat. [25] She portrays the daughter of an art forger in the 1966 film How to Steal a Million , incorporating an aristocratic slant to sixties mod-trends, such as sculptural tailoring, brightly coloured overcoats, costume jewellery, and white sunglasses. [25] Hepburn was cast as a screenwriter's assistant in Paris When It Sizzles (1967), donning bolder hues, including an orange drape-back shirtdress, pistachio skirt suit, and a cotton-candy shift dress. [25]
[Hepburn]'s so embedded in our understanding of fashion history; her outfits on and off screen both totally timeless and emblematic of the sartorial shifts and changes of the latter half of the 20th century. .. many of the clothes from her films — including the little black dress she wore as Holly Golightly, and the humble polo neck in Funny Face (1957) — are now the definition of iconic.
Hepburn was added to the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List in 1961. [30] Shortly after her rise to prominence, department store Barneys New York released a clothing line inspired by her on and off-duty wardrobe. [18] After Hepburn's death in 1993, much of her gowns were distributed by Givenchy to museums around the world. [15] Upon Givenchy's retirement in 1995, Vanity Fair wrote that "Audrey Revivalism" gained popularity, a term referring to renewed public interest and fashion trends in line with Hepburn's life and fashion, with "legions of fans" seeking to imitate her looks. [15] [31] Her personal collection, including much of her clothing, was exhibited at Christie's London in 2017. [32]
Her dressing has inspired celebrities Beyoncé, [33] Natalie Portman, [34] Taylor Swift, [35] [36] Kendall Jenner, [37] Kiernan Shipka, [38] [39] Sandra Bullock, [40] Zooey Deschanel, [40] Lily Allen, [24] Meghan Markle, [41] and Rachel Bilson. [40] Her on-screen fashion has influenced costuming in film and television, including Big Little Lies (2017-2019), [42] Emily in Paris (2020-present), [43] and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). [33] " Scores of designers" have been reported to release designs inspired by Hepburn, [18] including Zara and Michael Kors, [7] Hepburn has been included in various "best-dressed" lists, including 100 Fashion Icons for Time , [44] Women Who Changed Fashion for Harper's Bazaar , [45] Style Icons for Forbes , [46] and Most Influential Fashion Icons Of All Time for StyleCaster. [47]
Hepburn's posthumous status as an icon has contributed to the ongoing relevancy of her style. [11] [48] Her style and appearance has been idolized by young women during and after her lifetime, with her most famous ensembles being recognizable to the public. [24] [49] Hepburn has been referred to as one of the most elegant women in history. [2] Edith Head stated that Hepburn understood fashion better than any actress, with the exception of Marlene Dietrich. [12] Isaac Mizrahi cited her with bringing minimalism into trend, while Christian Lacroix stated that Hepburn symbolized the style of her generation. [12] Vogue France writes that Hepburn's style "embedded in our understanding of fashion history" and representative of twentieth century fashion. [13] In 2015, her granddaughter, Emma Ferrer, posed in a photoshoot for Harper's Bazaar paying tribute to Hepburn's most memorable ensembles. [50]
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.
A miniskirt is a skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level, normally no longer than 10 cm (4 in) below the buttocks; and a dress with such a hemline is called a minidress or a miniskirt dress. A micro-miniskirt or microskirt is a miniskirt with its hemline at the upper thigh, at or just below crotch or underwear level.
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion and perfume house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn and clothing for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970.
The little black dress (LBD) is a black evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often quite short. Fashion historians ascribe the origins of the little black dress to the 1920s designs of Coco Chanel. It is intended to be long-lasting, versatile, affordable, and widely accessible. Its ubiquity is such that it is often simply referred to as the "LBD".
Givenchy is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de Givenchy and is a member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Prêt-à-Porter. It is currently owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH.
During the 1820s in European and European-influenced countries, fashionable women's clothing styles transitioned away from the classically influenced "Empire"/"Regency" styles of c. 1795–1820 and re-adopted elements that had been characteristic of most of the 18th century, such as full skirts and clearly visible corseting of the natural waist.
In a decade that broke many traditions, adopted new cultures, and launched a new age of social movements, 1960s fashion had a nonconformist but stylish, trendy touch. Around the middle of the decade, new styles started to emerge from small villages and cities into urban centers, receiving media publicity, influencing haute couture creations of elite designers and the mass-market clothing manufacturers. Examples include the mini skirt, culottes, go-go boots, and more experimental fashions, less often seen on the street, such as curved PVC dresses and other PVC clothes.
The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.
Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time. The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continued to characterize fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.
In fashion, a sheath dress is a fitted, straight cut dress, often nipped at the waistline with no waist seam. When constructing the dress, the bodice and skirt are joined together by combining the skirt darts into one dart: this aligns the skirt darts with the bodice waist dart. The dress emphasizes the waist as its skirt portion is fitted. While the sheath dress can come in many patterns and lengths, it often is worn with short sleeves and reaches knee length.
Audrey Hepburn wore a "little black dress" in the 1961 romantic comedy film Breakfast at Tiffany's. The garment was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, and is worn during the opening scene of the film. The dress is referred to as one of the most iconic clothing items in the history of the twentieth century, and perhaps the most famous little black dress of all time.
Audrey Hepburn wore a white floral Givenchy dress to the Academy Awards in 1954. The dress is now regarded as one of the classic dresses of the 20th century.
Marilyn Monroe wore a white dress in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, directed by Billy Wilder. It was created by costume designer William Travilla and worn in the movie's best-known scene. The image of it and her above a windy subway grating has been described as one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.
The wedding dress worn by Meghan Markle at her wedding to Prince Harry on 19 May 2018 was designed by the British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller, artistic director of the fashion house Givenchy. The bride's veil was embroidered with flowers representing the countries of the Commonwealth; the California poppy, in honour of Markle's home state of California; and wintersweet, a flower that grows at Kensington Palace.
A fashion icon or fashion leader is a influential person who introduces new styles which spread throughout fashion culture and become part of fashion. They initiate a new style which others may follow. They may be famous personalities such as political leaders, celebrities, or sports personalities. For example, during the 1960s, Jackie Kennedy was a great fashion icon for American women, and her style became a sign of wealth, power, and distinction; and her famous Pink Chanel suit is one of the most referenced and revisited of all of her items of clothing. Twiggy was an It girl, she was a teenaged model and fashion icon of Swinging Sixties.
The fashion of Diana, Princess of Wales, had a substantial impact on the clothing industry; her style in the 1980s and 1990s led her to be considered a fashion icon.
Keira Knightley wore a green dress in the 2007 romantic war drama film Atonement. The garment was created by costume designer Jacqueline Durran with director Joe Wright, and is worn during the film's climactic scene. The dress, combining period and modern elements, was praised by media publications upon Atonement's release, and is regarded among the most iconic in film history.
Julia Roberts wore a red dress in the 1990 romantic comedy film Pretty Woman. The ensemble was created by costume designer Marilyn Vance, and is worn during a "transformative" scene in the film where Roberts' character, Vivian Ward, accompanies her love interest to a night at the opera. The off-the-shoulder evening gown has been referred to as one of the most iconic dresses in film history.
A sari-inspired dress incorporates attributes of the Indian sari into its design. This includes how it drapes, its embellishment and colours.