13 Items That Defined Audrey Hepburn’s Wardrobe
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?
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 last 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 collaborator – 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.
In honour of what would have been the icon’s 92nd birthday today (4 May), here is Vogue’s recap of Audrey Hepburn’s greatest style moments through the decades.
Bettmann1/13The hairband
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.
Archive Photos2/13The waist belt
In Roman Holiday (1953), the film that catapulted Hepburn to stardom, the actor stars opposite Gregory Peck as a princess dispensing with royal duties to sneak around Rome. A fresh-faced Hepburn lights up the screen, all easy elegance in 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.
Herbert Dorfman3/13The headscarf
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 cameos in Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and spy caper Charade (1963), accompanied by leather gloves and dark glasses.
Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock4/13The black polo neck
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.
Archive Photos/Getty Images5/13The gingham trouser
Another signature Hepburn look that continues to transcend time? 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.
Bettmann6/13The ballet flats
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.
Mondadori Portfolio7/13The indigo jean
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 more casual style influences of the ’60s, not least the wonderfully understated sight of Hepburn in a tomato-red top, jeans and sneakers.
Bettmann8/13The oversized white shirt
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).
