In 1954, a young actress, a former ballerina who grew up in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation and emigrated with her mother to England, was sent to the Parisian studio of a promising young designer to design a dress for the new film she was to star in. The young actress, who had a slender build and large doe eyes, was named Audrey Hepburn, the film she was about to star in was “Sabrina,” and the designer, who had only opened his own fashion house two years earlier, was named Hubert de Givenchy.
This was to be Hepburn's biggest film to date. The young actress's biggest challenge was her thin body, a tragic product of severe starvation during the Nazi siege of Holland during her childhood, which damaged her digestive system for the rest of her life. While this body type is considered highly desirable today, in the mid-1950s the bountiful curves of stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor dominated Hollywood, and Hepburn was cast primarily in roles as innocent girls and delicate European princesses - many thanks to her being the daughter of a Dutch noblewoman and her European accent. This time, she was to play the role of a slovenly girl named Sabrina, the daughter of a chauffeur for a wealthy family, who goes to study in Paris and returns from there as a chic Parisian barmaid. Hepburn realized that this was the moment to translate her boyish image into something more glamorous. Although veteran Hollywood designer Edith Head was entrusted with the costume design, the producers wanted a French designer to design the French dress that Sabrina would turn heads in in the famous ball scene. Hepburn, who had a fashion sense that was advanced for her time, knew exactly who would do the job, and asked to meet with the designer whose name had already begun to precede her.
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The love story between Givenchy and Hepburn begins
And so, in early 1954, Audrey Hepburn arrived at Givenchy's studio and sparks flew in the room from the very first moment. Givenchy was enchanted by Hepburn, who, unlike the stars who had come to him at the height of her fame, met him in shorts, a striped shirt, and cropped hair. And if those stars he had worked with in the past knew nothing about his French style, Hepburn, on the other hand, wanted to go through his previous collections herself and examine possible dresses. Givenchy fell in love with her initiative and understanding of the European fashion world, and the two began a fruitful, long-term collaboration and close friendship that lasted until the day Hepburn died. Designer Edith Head may have won an Oscar for her designs for the film "Sabrina," but generations of fans remember the white ball gown with black flowers that Hepburn and Givenchy created together in his studio in Paris.
As mentioned, Givenchy and Hepburn remained close friends. Later that year, when Hepburn married actor Mel Ferrer, Givenchy was not available to design her wedding dress himself. Although he was content with being a guest of honor, he turned the job of designing her wedding dress over to his longtime colleague, designer Pierre Balmain, who would also become one of the greatest French designers. He made up for it by designing her wedding dress in the film Funny Face in 1957 and also her next wedding dress when she remarried to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969.
The “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” dress is the pinnacle of collaboration between the two
But the moment that made the talented designer and star a style icon for generations came in 1961 when Hepburn took on a role that was completely different from any she had played up to that point. The actress, accustomed to playing delicate and delicate roles, took on the role of Holly Golightly, a poor escort girl in the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” based on a short story by author Truman Capote. In Capote’s story, Holly Golightly is a poor, illiterate orphan from a rural Western town who flees to New York City following dreams of glamour and wealth, but finds herself working as an escort girl and dreaming of a glamour that she never truly achieves. The perfect metaphor for this is the fact that early every morning, Golightly goes out into the streets of old New York, buys a bun on the street corner and eats it in front of the window of the prestigious jewelry store “Tiffany’s” to absorb luxury and beauty with her breakfast. This time too, Hepburn was wise enough to understand the magnitude of the challenge, as not only was her fragile appearance considered unsuitable for playing such a scandalous role, but the writer himself wanted to cast none other than the voluptuous Marilyn Monroe for the role. Hepburn now had to prove that she could convey sexuality and explosive femininity no less well than the legendary Monroe, and once again she knew who the person would make it happen.
Capote's Holly Golightly may have dreamed of unattainable glamour, but the character re-created by friends Givenchy and Hepburn was the epitome of the 1960s New York glamour girl, becoming such an iconic fashion icon that her look was emulated for generations by Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Diana and actress Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw. All thanks to a long black dress and oversized Hubert de Givenchy sunglasses. Hepburn's look in Breakfast at Tiffany's became one of the greatest fashion moments in film history, and Givenchy became synonymous with luxury and style worldwide.
legacy
Audrey Hepburn retired from acting in the late 1993s to raise her family and live a pastoral life in Switzerland. She later became a UNICEF ambassador and dedicated her life to working with children in Africa before succumbing to cancer and passing away in XNUMX.
Givenchy became the head of one of the world's largest fashion design powers. He retired in 1995, moving to an 18th-century château on the outskirts of Paris and enjoyed a long-standing relationship with his partner, the high-end designer Philippe Vanna. Hubert de Givenchy passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 91 on Tuesday night, March 11, 2018. The two's eternal friendship leaves behind a legacy of style and the long-standing perfume L'Intredit, which Givenchy created in 1957, inspired by the delicate Hepburn.
Want to travel through Paris in the footsteps of Audrey Hepburn?
You are welcome to check out the This itinerary Which passes through the places that Audrey loved the most and some of which also appeared in her films.
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