Black Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn

History

Audrey Hepburn was a close friend of French designer Givenchy, referring to the designer as her "best friend" while he considered her his "sister".

In 1961, Givenchy designed a little black dress for the opening scene of Blake Edwards' romantic comedy, Breakfast at Tiffany's, in which Hepburn starred alongside actor George Peppard. Her necklace was made by Roger Scemama, a French jeweler and parure-maker who designed jewelry for Givenchy. Hepburn took two copies of the dress back to Paramount, but the dresses, which revealed a considerable amount of Hepburn's leg, were not suitable for the movie, and the lower half of the dress was redesigned by Edith Head.

• The original hand-stitched dress is currently stored within the House of Givenchy's private collectors archive.
• Another copy Hepburn took back to Paramount studios is currently on display at the Museo del Traje in Madrid, Spain.
• Another copy was auctioned at Christie's in December 2006, now owned by a private American collector.
• Another copy was given to a family friend in the Netherlands.

Accordingly, none of the actual dresses created by Givenchy were used in either the actual movie or the promotional press photography. The movie poster was designed by artist Robert McGinnis, and in Sam Wasson's book, Fifth Avenue, 5am, he explains that the photos on which he based the poster did not show any leg, and that he had added the leg to make the poster more appealing.

The whereabouts of the dresses that were used in the movie (and created by Edith Head) are still unknown, though they were probably destroyed by Head and Hepburn at Western Costume in California after the film shooting.

In November 2006, actress Natalie Portman appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, wearing one of the original Givenchy dresses created for Breakfast at Tiffany's. On 5 December 2006, this dress was auctioned at Christie's in London and purchased by an anonymous buyer by telephone. The sale price was estimated by the auction house to have ended somewhere between £50,000 and £70,000, but the final price was £467,200 ($923,187). The money raised in the auction of the black dress went toward helping build a school for the poor people of Calcutta. Givenchy, the designer of the dress, had donated the dress to Dominique Lapierre, the author of the book City of Joy, and his wife to help raise funds for the charity. When they witnessed such a frenzied auction, the amount that was raised so astonished Lapierre that he observed:

Sarah Hodgson, a film specialist at Christie's said, "This is one of the most famous black dresses in the world—an iconic piece of cinematic history—and we are glad it fetched a historic price."

Design

The model is a Givenchy black Italian satin sheath evening gown. Christie's describes it as "a sleeveless, floor-length gown with fitted bodice embellished at the back with distinctive cut-out décolleté, the skirt slightly gathered at the waist and slit to the thigh on one side, labelled inside on the waistband Givenchy; accompanied by a pair of black elbow-length gloves". The bodice is slightly open at the back with a neckline that leaves uncovered shoulders. In the film, Audrey Hepburn wears a matching pair of elbow-length gloves the same colour and strings of pearls. The look has been described as "ultra-feminine" and "Parisian".

The little black dress attained such iconic fame and status that it became an integral part of a woman's wardrobe. Givenchy not only chose the dress for the character in the film, but also added matching accessories, including a many-stranded pearl choker, a foot-long cigarette holder, a large black hat and opera gloves. These details "visually defined the character" and "indelibly linked Audrey with her".

Hepburn, along with her designer friend Givenchy, created a dress to fit her physical features and her role in the film of a waif. The accessories alongside the black silk dress, which highlighted her lean shoulder blades, came to define Hepburn's style. The dark oversized sunglasses completed the ensemble of the little black dress (LBD), and the outfit was called "the definitive LBD".

Reception

The dress is cited as one of the most iconic of the 20th century and film history. It has been described as "perhaps the most famous little black dress of all time" and exerted a major influence on fashion itself by quickly popularizing the little black dress.

In a survey conducted in 2010 by LOVEFiLM, Hepburn's little black dress was chosen as the best dress ever worn by a woman in a film. In this respect, Helen Cowley, publisher of LOVEFiLM, declared that "Audrey Hepburn has truly made that little black dress a fashion staple which has stood the test of time despite competition from some of the most stylish females around." Hepburn's white dress and hat worn in My Fair Lady was voted sixth.

Hepburn's little black dress (LBD) has been copied and parodied numerous times in other works worldwide, such as Natalie Portman in a 2006 Harper’s Bazaar cover shoot and Lee Ji-eun in Hotel del Luna.

References

References

1. (April 2007). "The Most Famous Dresses Ever". Glamour.com.
2. (6 December 2006). "Audrey Hepburn dress".
3. (17 May 2010). "Audrey Hepburn's little black dress tops fashion list". [[The Independent]].
4. Steele, Valerie. (9 November 2010). "The Berg Companion to Fashion". Berg Publishers.
5. (17 April 1995). "The Muse and the Master".
6. (30 December 2016). "3 Messed up Things People Never Notice About 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'".
7. (31 October 2014). "Roger Scemama for Hubert de Givenchy". [[Vogue (magazine).
8. "Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961".
9. "Where is the real Breakfast at Tiffany's dress?". Richard Newbold.
10. "Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961". [[Christie's]].
11. Moseley, Rachel. (2002). "Growing up with Audrey Hepburn: text, audience, resonance". Manchester University Press.
12. (3 October 2006). "The Audrey Hepburn Treasures". Simon and Schuster.
13. (5 October 2010). "Cinemode: Breakfast at Tiffany's: The LBD that Dethroned Edith Head".
14. Sherrow, Victoria. (2006). "Encyclopedia of hair: a cultural history". Greenwood Publishing Group.
15. (27 July 2019). "IU Channels Audrey Hepburn While Shopping with Yeo Jin Goo in New Sneak Peek of "Hotel del Luna"".
16. (27 November 2019). "The Story behind Audrey Hepburn's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Dress".