The enduring image of Audrey Hepburn
MANILA, Philippines – Women in little black dresses flocked to an exhibit in Pasay City recently featuring rare photos of Hollywood icon Audrey Hepburn.
The little black dress has become a staple in every woman’s wardrobe, largely because of Hepburn’s enduring legacy, her image and style infiltrating popular culture.
Besides the little black dress (or “LBD”), Hepburn was embedded in generations’ consciousness for her elfin face, her lithe body that was in contrast with the popular bombshell figure of the ’50s, and her thick eyebrows and micro-bangs, which continue to be copied by the biggest celebrities today.
But it wasn’t just her appearance that made her special. It was her personality and boyish charm that continue to win hearts. In the Intimate Audrey exhibit, the first in Asia, Hepburn’s life was celebrated in never-before-seen photos and personal items.
The bespoke exhibit, helmed by Hepburn’s son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, chronicled her life from her roots in Brussels, Belgium, her theater and ballet days, her catapult to fame care of the 1953 classic Roman Holiday, up to her twilight years devoted to humanitarian work.
The photos also reveal a silly side of a young Hepburn and a lifelong love for dogs.
Some of the personal items displayed in the exhibit are Hepburn’s ballet slippers, Julia Roberts’ letter to the actress, and the wedding dress (cinched: waist) she wore when she married fellow actor Mel Ferrer in Switzerland.
There was a video montage of compiled scenes from her movies Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sabrina, Funny Face, and My Fair Lady. Her singing voice that sometimes drawls, sometimes whispers, croons in the backdrop.
British photographer Cecile Beaton described Hepburn as the personality that best exemplified their zeitgeist. And it may be well argued that her image continues to capture the current mood, her style still imitated by many women today.
“Audrey Hepburn is the gamine, the urchin, the lost Barnabo boy,” Beaton wrote for Vogue in 1954.
“She is a wistful child of the 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.”
At the end of the exhibit are gowns made by Filipino designers, inspired by Hepburn’s wardrobe from many of her films.
Intimate Audrey is on display from August 1 to October 29 at The Museum at S Maison in Pasay City, Manila. – Rappler.com