a fashion designers tribute
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Last Updated : GMT 05:17:37
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

To Audrey with love

A fashion designer's tribute

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

Emiratesvoice, emirates voice A fashion designer's tribute

Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn
The Hague - Arab Today

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 fashionistas 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.

"She persuaded me, how lucky I was to have accepted," Givenchy said.

- Creator of personality -

The retrospective of Givenchy's designs for his friend and style icon entitled "To Audrey with Love" has just opened at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and lasts until late March.

It is the designer's homage to his muse and Givenchy has personally selected many of the 100 outfits featured in the collection, a few of which have never been seen in public before, in what he calls a "journey through her wardrobe".

In the 1954 romantic comedy "Sabrina", Hepburn appeared alongside then screen heart-throb Humphrey Bogart, and in one key screen wore a sophisticated, floating ivory ball dress edged in black with embroidered black flowers -- a Givenchy creation.

The same year, she wore a delicate ivory lace Givenchy creation for the Oscars where she won the Best Actress award for "Roman Holiday".  

Givenchy was to remain by her side for many of her most iconic films such as the 1961 "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade" in 1963 and some of his most memorable outfits from those films are on show. 

Using everything from satin to tulle and silk, his imagination flourished as he designed for Hepburn both on and off-screen.

"Givenchy's clothes are the only ones I feel myself in. He is more than a designer, he is a creator of personality," she once said.

The exhibition has taken a year to put together, with Givenchy, now 89, overseeing every detail, and hoping to pay tribute to his muse's "elegance and style."

It also includes a collection of beautiful jewellery, accessories, scarves and hats, as well as sketches, drawings, photos and film stills.

- Protected by silk -

Imbued with a sense of nostalgia for the fashion of decades past, the collection nonetheless shows how the actress's style has remained remarkably fresh and contemporary. Hepburn knew how to bring her clothes to life through "her beauty, personality and lightness of spirit," Givenchy said.

In some ways it is also a homecoming, as Hepburn was the daughter of a British banker and a Dutch baroness, and had deep ties to The Netherlands. 

After Hepburn was appointed in 1988 as a goodwill ambassador for the UN children's agency UNICEF, she would often give interviews wearing a simple silk or satin T-shirt. She told Givenchy recounting the horrors of war she had seen that "thanks to this small piece of silk, I feel protected because you are close to me."

At the end of her life, they were again united through a piece of material when he visited her at her home in Switzerland as she battled cancer.

Hepburn gave him a navy blue quilted coat urging him "when you are sad, wear this and it will give you courage."

"From Geneva to Paris, I wept in the jacket she had given me," he said, still overcome with emotion two decades after her death.

"Audrey will never go out of fashion. She is current. And her image continues to amaze us."

Source: AFP

GMT 11:22 2018 Tuesday ,23 January

to 'eternal style' of late Alaia

GMT 08:08 2018 Monday ,22 January

Uggs, pigs and tartan

GMT 06:10 2018 Sunday ,21 January

Gardiner announces freelance details

GMT 09:07 2018 Saturday ,20 January

Rocky start for Alzheimer's research

GMT 09:04 2018 Thursday ,18 January

Designer Jones quits Louis Vuitton

GMT 22:14 2018 Wednesday ,17 January

Stylist fashion editor commences role

GMT 09:52 2018 Wednesday ,17 January

Pretty dresses are no longer just

GMT 10:28 2018 Tuesday ,16 January

Lacobella appoints 5th House PR
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice
Emiratesvoice, emirates voice

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

a fashion designers tribute a fashion designers tribute

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

a fashion designers tribute a fashion designers tribute

 



GMT 09:54 2018 Wednesday ,24 January

'Friendly and kind' N. Korean skaters

GMT 09:36 2017 Thursday ,07 December

Heidy Karam’s contract to present talk show close

GMT 10:50 2012 Friday ,20 January

Dusty weather expected in UAE on Friday

GMT 09:35 2018 Saturday ,13 January

New Zealand bat first in third ODI against Pakistan

GMT 10:48 2017 Saturday ,23 December

Meryl Streep's brand under threat

GMT 06:53 2017 Thursday ,11 May

17th Doha Forum To Begin Sunday

GMT 10:30 2017 Thursday ,23 November

Reports underline proliferation of weapons in Arab world

GMT 07:46 2017 Monday ,30 October

Catch it early, treat it early and move on

GMT 08:05 2015 Tuesday ,17 February

Conan O'Brien is first late night host to film in Cuba

GMT 16:17 2018 Thursday ,30 August

Five Saudi women pilots granted GACA licences
 
 Emirates Voice Facebook,emirates voice facebook  Emirates Voice Twitter,emirates voice twitter Emirates Voice Rss,emirates voice rss  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube  Emirates Voice Youtube,emirates voice youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

emiratesvoieen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen emiratesvoiceen
emiratesvoice emiratesvoice emiratesvoice
emiratesvoice
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice, Emiratesvoice