Одри Хепберн

Audrey Hepburn by Hubert de Givenchy

I've had two great privileges in my life. To have known and been the friend of two people of outstanding talent: Cristobal Balenciaga and Audrey Hepburn. Each of them gave me something exceptional that l carry with me today. Thinking of Audrey I remember the extraordinary bond that existed between us. She was capable of enhancing alI my creations. And often ideas would come to me when I had her on my mind. She always knew what she wanted and what she was aiming for. It was like that from the very start.
I was busy working on my new collection the first time she turned up unexpectedly at my Paris atelier.
On being told that Miss Hepburn had arrived I immediately presumed it was Katherine Hepburn, whom I adored. Hurrying to greet her, I found myself confronted with a young woman dressed as a gondolier. I was


totally astonished. I was even more astonished, however, when she asked me to create clothes for her next film, Sabrina. Unfortunately I was too busy to do so. But her charming manner had won me over and I suggested she choose some garments from my collection. Audrey confessed she had fallen in love with my clothes when she was in France shooting Monte Carlo Baby (Nous irons à Monte Carlo), but at the time had been unable to make any purchases. Now Billy Wilder was giving her the chance to supplement Edith Head's costumes with real clothes. And she wanted to use exclusively mine.

After Sabrina, Audrey requested my clothes for all her films with a contemporary setting.
Which is how I came to design the outfits she wore in Funny Face, Love in the Afternoon, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, Paris when it Sizzles and How to steal a Million.

One thing that struck me about her, apart from her charm and elegance, was her ability to make herself loved and admired by women as well as men. Her image was unique. This is something that other great actresses have been unable to create for themselves.

Audrey was a very precise person and a consummate professional. She was never late and she never threw tantrums. Unlike many of her illustrious colleagues, she did not behave like a spoilt star. She knew exactly how to shape her strong, independent image. This naturally extended to the way she dressed. And she always took the clothes created for her one step further by adding something of her own, some small personal detail which enhanced the whole. But it wasn't only elegance that she enhanced. She heightened the impact of the entire design.
For both of us creating things this way was a game that we loved. Our ideas sparked each other off. When l asked if I could use her face to publicize my perfume she agreed at once.At that time it was unusual for a celebrated actress to appear in an advertisement. But Audrey was perfect, also because she was the inspiration for the perfume, which I'd dedicated to her. I called it Interdit (For You Alone). The perfume and its bottle have remained unaltered to this day. Truly interdit to all change.

Today Audrey would have been 70. And to me it's as if she's still here. lt feels as though she's embarked on a long journey from which she will one day return. Because Audrey's a person of infinite interest, one can never tire of talking about her. What I do miss, however, are her phone calls which used to come out of the blue. Even during her last years, when she travelled extensively in her capacity as an ambassador of Unicef, I often received one of her surprise calls. Sometimes it was just to say, "Thank you, Hubert. I love you".

Hubert de Givenchy

Audrey Hepburn by Sean Ferrer


Style is a word we use often and for a multitude of purposes. In the case of my mother, Audrey Hepburn, it was the extension of an inner beauty held up by a life of discipline, respect for the other and hope in humanity. lf the lines were pure and elegant it was because she believed in the power of simplicity. lf there was timelessness it was because she believed in quality and if she still is an icon of style today it is because once she found her look she stayed with it throughout her life. She didn't go with the trends, didn't reinvent herself every season. She loved fashion but kept it as a tool to compliment her look.

In effect she used the same unspoken dress codes, if there are any, that an English Gentleman would use. Better always to be underdressed than overdressed. Don't attract attention.

Less is more. What is cheap, ends up being expensive and what is expensive ends being cheap; better to buy one good pair of shoes that will last and that fit (always a half size larger) than several pairs that won't last. Take good care of your clothes because they are the first impression of you. So when she appeared it didn't scream out "look at me" but "this is me . no better than you". And she truly believed in that. She didn't see herself as anything special or unusual. Which is why she worked so hard and was always pleasant and professional. Her style was just an extension of who she was. The person we all admired because down deep we knew that we saw was not just clever packaging but an honest and 100% genuine human being.

Billy Wilder, her great friend and extraordinary director, said it best "God kissed her on the cheek and there she was.


Sean Ferrer

Audrey Hepburn by Valentina Cortese


The moment I saw her I realized she was perfect for the part of Nora, my young ballerina sister in The Secret People, a British spy thriller directed by Thorold Dickinson. I was struck by the slender grace of her figure and the big doe eyes that gazed awestruck at everything around her. I didn't know her name - even less than one day she would be Audrey Hepburn - but I was aware that the willowy 23-year-old had a certain something that other teenagers who flocked to screen tests lacked.

We bumped into each other at the studio cafe after the auditions were over. Dickinson had decided against her, but she didn't know that yet. She glanced at me and asked, "Do you think l've got it?" I was embarrassed, then realized I had to do something. I hurried over to Dickinson to persuade him to change his mind. Because he adored me, he was prepared to listen to what I had to say. I insisted she was perfect for the part. The graceful way she moved, her elegant posture - how could he not see it? I even said there was a physical resemblance between us. There wasn't, but I didn't matter. In the end Dickinson came round and Audrey got the part.

And I was proved right because she was perfect in the ballet scenes. She didn't look like an actress trying to play a ballerina. She was both. When I think of Audrey's dancing, I'm reminded of Carla Fracci. They share something of the same purity, the same lightness of movement, the same grace. The radiance that illuminated Audrey's face then illuminates Carla's now. On stage and off. During the making of the film we became close friends. In fact, I treated her as if she really was my younger sister. The movie received wonderful reviews when it came out. We started going to gala dinners and evenings that were held in some of London's most exclusive clubs. At that time it was fashionable for women to smoke cigarillos, so Audrey and I would make public appearances puffing cigarillos in long holders. We had great fun.

After The Secret Peopfe we went our different ways, but kept in touch by phone. Audrey considered me a sort of big sister she could turn to every now and then for advice. I was the one who pushed her to accept a part in Jean Boyer's Monte Carfo Baby (Nous lrons à Monte Carfo), for example, which she was reluctant to do because it was smaller that the part she'd had before. I did so because it was a prestigious production. Once again my intervention was a fortunate one. While filming a scene at the Hotel de Paris, Audrey was spotted by Colette who immediately asked her to play the title role of Glgl when it transferred to Broadway. And that was a triumph.After this life took us on our separate ways. We met up a number of times in Rome and occasionally Paris. Then she exited the stage. Gracefully. Silently. Like a ballerina. Walking on her points.

The basic ah-mo


Wear your clothes, don't let them wear you.

Ignore trends, you are above them.

Study yourself and make the most of your assets. Everyone's got something wonderful to emphasize. Highlight it and ignore the rest. There's no point spending years in therapy "accepting" yourself. As the Brits say, "One must take the rough with the smooth."

Get a good tailor - everything should fit.

Think classic with a twist, never let your clothes enter a room before you do.

Dress appropriately. The time to unveil your Sabrina ball gown is not when everyone's slumming around the backyard. Alternatively, unless you are Bob Dylan or Fran Lebowitz, it is disrespectful to show up at a major awards ceremony in a dinner jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots.

Always look sharp. Audrey never traveled anywhere without requesting an iron from room service. And she used it too.

Keep your shoulders back, listen intently, and smile.

Count your blessings.


From:

- Keogh, Pamela Clarke, audreystyle

Audrey Hepburn by Cecil Beaton


It is always a dramatic moment when the Phoenix rises anew from its ashes. For if "queens have died young and fair," they are also reborn, appearing in new guises which often create their own terms of appreciation. Even while the pessimists were predicting that no new feminine ideal could emerge from the aftermath of war, an authentic existentialist Galatea was being forged in the person of Miss Audrey Hepburn.
No one can doubt that Audrey Hepburn's appearance succeeds because it embodies the spirit of today. She had, if you like, her prototypes in France - Damia, Edith Piaf, or Juliet Greco. But it took the rubble of Belgium, an English accent, and an American success to launch the striking personality that best exemplifies our new Zeitgeist.
Nobody ever looked like her before World War II; it is doubtful if anybody ever did, unless it be those wild children of the French Revolution whose stride in the foreground of romantic canvases. Yet we recognize the rightness of this appearance in relation to our historical needs. And the proof is that thousands of imitations have appeared. The woods are full of emaciated young ladies with rat-nibbled heir and moon-pale faces.

What does their paragon really look like? Audrey Hepburn has enormous heron's eyes and dark eye-brows slanted towards the Far East. Her facial features show character rather than prettiness: the bridge of the nose seems almost too narrow to carry its length, which Bares into a globular tip with nostrils startlingly like a duck's bill. Her mouth is wide, with a cleft under the lower lip too deep for classical beauty, and the delicate chin appears even smaller by contrast with the exaggerated width of her jaw bones. Seen at the full, the outline of her face is perhaps too square; yet she intuitively tilts her head with a restless and perky asymmetry. She is like a portrait by Modigliani where the various distortions are not only interesting in themselves but make a completely satisfying composite.

Beneath this child-like head (as compact as a coconut with its cropped hair and wispy monkey-fur fringe) is a long, incredibly slender and straight neck. A rod-like back continues the vertical line of the nape, and she would appear exaggeratedly tall were it not for her natural grace. Audrey Hepburn's stance is a combination of an ultra fashion plate and a ballet dancer. Indeed, she owes a large debt to the ballet for her bearing and abandon in movement, which yet suggest a personal quality, an, angular kinship with cranes and storks. She can assume almost acrobatic poses, always maintaining an innate elegance in her incredibly lithe torso, long, flat waist, tapering fingers and endless legs. With arms akimbo or behind her back, she habitually plants her feet wide apart--one heel dug deep with the toe pointing skywards. And it is more natural for her to squat cross-legged on the floor than to sit in a chair.

Like the natural artist that she is Audrey Hepburn is bold and sure in her effects. There is no lack of vigor in her rejection of the softly pretty. She wears no powder, so that her white skin has a bright sheen. Using a stick of grease paint with a deft stroke, she draws heavy bars of black upon her naturally full brews; and almost in Fratellini fashion, liberally smudges both upper and lower eyelids with black. To complete the clown boldness, she enlarges her mouth even at the ends, thus making her smile expand to an enormous slice from Sambo's watermelon. The general public, in its acceptance of such an uncompromisingly stark appearance, has radically forsaken the prettily romantic or pseudo-mysterious heroines of only two decades ago.

In clothing, this ingénue Ichabod wears a "junior miss" version of highwayman coats, clergyman cassocks, or students' pants, overalls, scarfs. Yet she is infinitely more soignée than most students, possessing, in fact, an almost Oriental sense of the exquisite. And she is immaculately shed, whether in pumps, sandals, or court shoes. Audrey Hepburn is the gamine, the urchin, the lost Barnardo boy. Sometimes she appears to be dangerously fatigued; already, at her lettuce age, there are apt to be shadows under the eyes, while her cheeks seem taut and pallid. She is a wistful child of a war-chided era, and the shadow thrown across her youth underlines even more its precious evanescence. But if she can reflect sorrow, she seems also to enjoy the happiness life provides for her with such bounty.

It is a rare phenomenon to find a very young girl with such inherent "star quality." As a result of her enormous success, Audrey Hepburn has already acquired the extra incandescent glow which comes as a result of being acclaimed, admired, and loved. Yet while developing her radiance, she has too much innate candor to take on that gloss of artificiality Hollywood is apt to demand of its queens. Her voice is peculiarly personal. With its unaccustomed rhythm and sing-song cadence on a flat drawl, it has a quality of heartbreak. Though such a voice might easily become mannered, she spends much time in improving its musical range.
In fact, with the passing of every month, Audrey Hepburn increases in dramatic stature. Intelligent and alert, wistful but enthusiastic, frank yet tactful, assured without conceit and tender without sentimentality, she is the most promising theatrical talent to appear since the war. Add to this the remarkable distinction she emanates, and it is not rash to say she also gives every indication of being the most interesting public embodiment of our new feminine ideal.

US Vogue, November, 01, 1954

Маленькое черное платье уйдет с молотка

Знаменитое маленькое черное платье, в котором актриса Одри Хепберн снималась в фильме "Завтрак у Тиффани", будет продано с благотворительного аукциона. Собранные средства пойдут индийским беднякам.

Платье было создано известным кутюрье Юбером Живанши, отвечавшим за наряды Хепберн в фильме 1961 года.

Холли Голайти, чью роль исполнила знаменитая актриса, появляется в маленьком черном платье в самом начале фильма, в сцене, когда она выходит из такси.

Представители аукциона Christie's ожидают, что за платье заплатят от 50 тысяч фунтов (90 тысяч долларов) до 70 тысяч (126 тысяч долларов). Торги состоятся в начале декабря.

Одри Хепберн родилась в Брюсселе в 1929 году в семье англо-ирландского банкира и голландской аристократки - потомка английских и французских королей.

В годы войны, учась в английской частной школе, она приехала к матери в Голландию и угодила под нацистскую оккупацию; как и многим другим, ей пришлось несладко. Затем ей предстояла балетная школа в Лондоне, первый опыт в модельной карьере и, наконец, первая кинороль - еще в Голландии в 1948 году.

С тех пор Хепберн стала одной из самых узнаваемых киноактрис. Ее неоднократно признавали самой красивой женщиной всех времен.

Благотворительность играла важную роль в жизни Хепберн. В частности, она являлась послом доброй воли детского фонда ООН ЮНИСЕФ.

Актриса умерла от рака в возрасте 63 лет.

Фильм "Завтрак у Тиффани" был поставлен по новелле Трумана Капоте. В нем также снимались Джордж Пеппард, Мики Руни и Патриция Нил.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/entertainment/newsid_5218000/5218188.stm

Только что закончились РИМСКИЕ КАНИКУЛЫ по НТВ...
Я ЕЁ обожаю!!! Она просто прелесть, каких свет не видел больше!!!

Я тоже глядел по НТВ "Римские каникулы". У меня сестренка от актерского таланта Одри тащится. Миллионами раз смотрит ее фильмы. По-моему, не все из них могут быть оценены больше, чем на 4. Но "Каникулы", "Как украсть миллион" мне самому нравятся.

"Римские каникулы" смотрел на том же канале. Они его уже 3 или 4й раз за год показывают. Мне понравился.

Russian diva Maria Sharapova has found an unlikely source of inspiration at the U.S. Open in New York, the late actress Audrey Hepburn, Agence France Presse news agency reports.

The 19-year-old glamour girl of tennis was clad in a striking all black sequined outfit for her 6-3, 6-0 demolition of Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands.

And she said the idea for the outfit had come from her observations of the star of such classic films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady.

“The whole inspiration for the night dress was Audrey Hepburn. I’m really inspired by her,” Sharapova is quoted by Agence France Presse news agency as saying.

“I’m in a phase where I’m watching all her movies.

”I haven’t seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s since like three weeks ago, then I saw Roman Holiday then I read some books about her.

“That’s where the inspiration came from. It’s classy, it’s elegant. I love the neck of it — all the crystals and everything.

”It’s pretty cool but the day dress is a little different. It’s not as exciting as the night dress, I’ll tell you that.

“But it’s kind of lavender color and has some lace mesh material.”

Sharapova admitted, however, that Hepburn may not be the flavor of the day for too long.

“I go through phases,” said Sharapova, who also collects stamps as a hobby. “I’ll be in another phase next month.”

source: http://mosnews.com/news/2006/08/31/tiffanyinspiration.shtml

Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy film which tells the story of a young royal princess who runs away during a state visit to Rome and is befriended by a cynical expatriate American reporter who first just wants an exclusive story, but finds himself falling in love with her.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "Roman holiday" is "an occasion on which entertainment or profit is derived from injury or death; a scene of suffering considered as an object of amusement; a pitiable spectacle" (alluding to holidays devoted to gladiatorial spectacles).

The film introduced American audiences to Belgian-born actress Audrey Hepburn, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Gregory Peck and Eddie Albert co-starred.

The film is also known for its Vespa footage, much praised by classic scooter enthusiasts the world over.