AUDREY LOVED TO WEAR GIVENCHY designs off the screen as much as she enjoyed using them to help bring her characters to life onscreen. She was inherently shy, and acting the part of a glamorous movie star outside of her work was not second nature to Audrey. Looking the part helped. She once said, “Givenchy’s creations always gave me a sense of security and confidence, and my work went more easily in the knowledge that I looked absolutely right. I felt the same at my private appearances. Givenchy’s outfits gave me ‘protection’ against strange situations and people. I felt so good in them.”
Presented here is a selection of highlights among the off-screen fashions Givenchy created for his dear friend, Audrey.
AUDREY WORE THIS UNIQUE DRESS to the premiere of The Nun’s Story (1959).
AT THE PREMIERE of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).
AUDREY WORE THIS GIVENCHY long-sleeved pink jersey dress with an empire waist on the day of her wedding to Andrea Dotti on January 18, 1969.
BERT STERN CONDUCTED A REMARKABLY beautiful photo shoot with Audrey for Vogue in 1963. Givenchy provided a sublime wardrobe for this session that crystallized Audrey’s status as the fashion world’s favorite leading lady. She wore silk gowns, embroidered evening dresses, and a selection of unique hairstyles, turbans, and hats.
“It’s too much . . .”
—AUDREY HEPBURN
Audrey was starring in Ondine on Broadway at the time of the Academy Awards ceremony in 1954, so she was not in Los Angeles to accept her award for Best Actress in Roman Holiday. Instead, she collected her prize after a performance of Ondine on the stage of Broadway’s Century Theatre. She gave a brief speech that began with an emotional, “It’s too much. . . .”
Audrey said her humble words wearing a white floral dress with a belt accentuating her tiny waist. That ceremony in 1954 took place several months before the release of Sabrina; thus this night was the first time the public ever saw Audrey Hepburn dressed by Givenchy. There could not have been a more auspicious start for the supremely talented pair who forever revolutionized fashion, with no illusions of ever doing so. In 1995—and again in 2011—Time magazine voted this Givenchy creation “the best Oscar dress of all time.”
THE STAR AND DESIGNER. Over the course of their forty-year friendship and professional partnership, both Audrey and Givenchy became fashion icons whose collaborations influenced trends for generations that followed.
