Givenchy show of his designs for Audrey Hepburn a reminder of one of fashion world’s greatest platonic love affairs
Dresses the late actress wore in films such as Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Charade, and dozens of others never before shown, on display in The Hague in exhibition personally curated by Hubert de Givenchy, now 89
One of the fashion world’s greatest platonic love stories almost never came to pass, when in the 1950s French couturier Hubert de Givenchy at first refused a request to design for Audrey Hepburn.
“When Audrey came to me and asked me to make her dresses for the film Sabrina, I didn’t know who she was. I was expecting Katharine Hepburn,” Givenchy said in an emotional press conference for the opening of a new exhibition of his creations in The Netherlands.
“She arrived looking so vulnerable, so graceful, so young and sparkling” dressed like “a young girl today” in cotton trousers, ballerina flats and T-shirt which showed off her belly-button, carrying a straw gondolier’s hat, the designer recalled.
“But I wasn’t really in any condition to make a major wardrobe for Sabrina and I told her, ‘No, Mademoiselle, I can’t dress you.’”
Luckily for fashion fans everywhere, Hepburn was not to be dissuaded and sweetly invited Givenchy to dinner. By the end of that meal in 1953, the aristocratic French designer had fallen under the spell of the petite actress. So began a creative friendship which lasted down the decades until the British film star died of cancer in 1993.
