Writing about Audrey Hepburn’s style is an exercise in avoiding cliches. The challenge: what is there left to say about her poise, understated elegance, lifelong dedication to impeccable tailoring, and her enduring friendship with Hubert de Givenchy, that hasn’t already been said? On the occasion of Audrey Hepburn's birthday (born on May 4, 1929), let's look back at her most emblematic fashion moments.
The history of a fashion icon
Hepburn’s power is her ubiquitousness. She’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. The publicity photographs for 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s have graced thousands of teenage girls’ bedroom walls, and 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.
It’s a style that always remains distinctly hers, though, as evidenced in a new documentary Audrey, released on 30 November. Made by the award-winning team behind BAFTA-nominated McQueen, it’s no surprise that clothes feature heavily, but the film also shares a rarely seen intimate look at Hepburn’s life via archival footage and interviews with friends, family and colleagues.
The result is an insightful and moving portrayal of the Belgian-born actress who lived through the trauma of German-occupied Holland during the second world war, with the teenage Hepburn suffering malnourishment as a consequence of food scarcity. The star’s natural talents for performing became her tool for raising both local spirits and money for the Dutch resistance: dancing at secret invitation-only events where funds were collected for those leading the underground fight against the Nazis.
The stardom that followed, which saw the actress move to Hollywood and enchant millions, concealed a life spent privately seeking stability and love. Her relationship with fashion was about companionship too, with Hubert de Givenchy fulfilling the role of friend and world-leading creative collaborateur — something former Givenchy creative director Clare Waight Keller recounts in the film.
“Fashion came into my life when I had my very, very first couture dress made by Hubert de Givenchy,” Hepburn once said. “The beauty was extraordinary.” It was not friendship at first sight, however. When the French couturier first met the actress, he thought he was going to be meeting Katharine Hepburn and was nonplussed at their initial encounter.
It was when Hepburn subsequently wore several outfits by the designer in her 1954 film Sabrina that the duo’s lifelong collaboration began, with the actress becoming the ultimate recipient of Givenchy’s refined approach to luxury dressing. Standout looks include an exquisite double-breasted wool skirt suit in Sabrina — its silhouette perfectly marking protagonist Sabrina Fairchild’s newfound sophistication after a stint in Paris — and the white gown with a ribbon-tied beaded bodice that Hepburn wore to attend the 1975 Academy Awards.
Here is Vogue’s recap of Audrey Hepburn’s greatest style moments through the decades.
No form of footwear is more readily associated with Hepburn than the ballet flat. It’s an unsurprising choice given Hepburn’s own background in dance — the actress always maintained that her first career dream had been to be a ballet dancer. When a selection of her personal garments and belongings were auctioned off by Christie’s in 2017, her wardrobe revealed a rainbow of leather pumps in sky blue, emerald green and marigold, which she wore with everything from cropped trousers and swing skirts to boxy blazers.
The hairband has undergone a renaissance in recent years thanks to major catwalk endorsement from designers including Prada, Fendi and Simone Rocha. Although Hepburn wore her fair share of tiaras, she also appreciated the comparatively simple pleasure of a hairband: whether a neatly bow-topped alice band or an unfussy white length of fabric keeping her hair off her face while practising at the barre.
Gold hoops, single pearls, diamond drops: the power of a good pair of earrings was never lost on Hepburn. She made great and repeated use of the chandelier earring too, a tiered cascade of glitz from her lobes, the ideal foil to glam evening gowns and that luminous smile.
Although Hepburn endorsed the appeal of a fitted blouse — often, as in Sabrina, tied at the waist — she also embodied the insouciant modernity of an oversized white men’s shirt, teamed with bare legs and perhaps a smattering of jewellery (or in the case of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a turquoise sleep mask trimmed with metallic eyelashes).
5. The waist belt
In Roman Holiday (1953), the film that catapulted Hepburn to stardom, the actress stars opposite Gregory Peck as a princess dispensing with royal duties to sneak around Rome. A fresh-faced Hepburn lights up the screen, the easy elegance of a blouse and voluminous skirt, cinched at the waist. It’s the details that make the look: the nonchalantly rolled-up sleeves, the jaunty striped neck scarf, ice-cream in hand, and the backdrop of the Italian capital’s meandering backstreets.
With a gamine cropped haircut and eyebrows any YouTube beauty vlogger would kill for, Hepburn’s appearance at the Academy Awards in 1954, where she won best actress, broke the mould. Her Givenchy white lace dress, belted at the waist, marked the beginning of a stellar set of red-carpet appearances over the following decades — and made sheer floral lace the go-to fabric for many generations of well-dressed actresses to come.
Another signature Hepburn look that continues to transcend time are the gingham trousers (she wore monochrome renditions, as well as shades of a picnic-blanket blue and pink) that accompanied her simple flats and clean-lined white tops. Hepburn was photographed in 1955 in this look by Norman Parkinson while in Italy shooting War and Peace (1956), and kept it on rotation over the years. Interestingly, the combination of gingham or pastel trousers with a plain blouse was one she often appeared in alongside animals: whether photographed with donkeys, dogs, or her beloved pet deer Pippin.
If there’s a working-from-home look we still find ourselves regularly lifting from Hepburn’s on-screen style CV, it’s the dance scene in Funny Face (1957) where Hepburn (playing Jo Stockton) dances her way through Paris’s intellectual underbelly in a black polo neck, black trousers and black penny loafers. Naturally, Hepburn is sinuous as a cat, and full of joy.
Although now considered her most defining film, Hepburn wasn’t the first choice for the role of kooky society girl Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Instead, author Truman Capote had hoped for Marilyn Monroe. From that first, lingering shot of Hepburn pausing by the window of Tiffany & Co (croissant in hand), resplendent in pearls, sunglasses, opera gloves and a long black gown, history was written. This was the kiss of life the fiercely modern black dress needed, paving the way for the ageless, era-less little black dress.
Hepburn loved a headscarf both on and off screen, often knotting a silk scarf over a beehive (her micro-fringe peeking out). Arguably her most glamorous style trick, the headscarf makes its cameo in Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and spy caper Charade (1963) accompanied by leather gloves and dark glasses.
A bittersweet examination of a 12-year marriage, Two for the Road (1967) Hepburn’s French road-trip movie was praised at the time for its honesty and refreshingly non-linear approach to storytelling. It also provided some fantastic costume moments. While Hepburn is clad in a string of the decade’s best-loved designers, including Paco Rabanne and Mary Quant, the film also pays homage to the 1960s more casual style influences, not least the wonderfully understated sight of Hepburn in a tomato-red top, jeans and sneakers.
Hepburn had several significant relationships in her life. She married her first husband Mel Ferrer in 1954 in a wedding gown with sleeves fit to satisfy the most avid of Batsheva enthusiasts. After they divorced, she married Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969: this time Hepburn wore a blush-pink minidress with a high neck, matching headscarf, and sleeves that flared from the wrists like flowers. It’s a look that still feels fresh today, and precipitated a period of time when she lived in Rome, where she was often photographed wearing bright zesty colours, huge sunglasses, and a succession of nifty belted coats.
13. The knit sweater
Although sometimes now better remembered for her dazzling dresses and more feminine 1950s get-ups, Hepburn was also a consummate dresser when it came to elevating knife-sharp tailored trousers. Her appearance on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson in 1976 was no exception. Her thin, ribbed jumper worn over a shirt radiates a definitively Hepburn charm.
14. The neutral look
In her later years, Hepburn further refined her wardrobe, with her faithful slim-cut trousers, crisp shirts and neat sweaters on regular rotation — a transition that marked a significant change in her personal and professional life. After completing her final film Always in 1989 (the white cable sweater she wears on screen feels fresh out of 2020’s style caboodle), Hepburn tirelessly channelled her energy into her role as a UNICEF ambassador for children affected by famine and disease across the world, before her death in 1993. It was a job she took extremely seriously, having herself received United Nations food and medical relief after the second world war, and in between assisting with urgent needs on the ground, Hepburn testified before the US Congress as well as raising considerable sums of money for the organisation.
This article was originally published on Vogue IN.
Also on Vogue.fr:
Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy’s iconic friendship in 25 vintage photos
Audrey Hepburn at home in 5 rare vintage photos
