SALE STORY
The recent sale at Christie’s of Audrey Hepburn’s personal belongings gave a unique insight into her fashion sense and personality. DOMINIQUE CORLETT takes a closer look at the Fair Lady’s lots…
This 1955 portrait of Audrey Hepburn by Antony Beauchamp smashed its estimate at auction
Sandwiched between the publicity shots, film scripts and impeccable couture outfits that made up most of the lots in the Christie’s sale of the personal possessions of Audrey Hepburn was a pale-blue sleep mask. The pre-sale estimate for this humble item was £100 to £150, yet it sold for over 40 times that – making £6,250 (including buyer’s premium) and was fought over by more bidders than anything else.
Hepburn was known for using sleep masks. During a hectic filming schedule, she would find a quiet corner, put on her mask and grab a few precious hours of sleep. In her most famous film, 1961’s Breakfast at Ti any’s, this private habit was brought to the screen when, after a night spent partying, her character, Holly Golightly, makes a memorable appearance wearing a man’s white shirt as a nightdress and a pale-blue sleep mask pushed back on her head.
‘This is not the mask from the film and we don’t even know for sure that she wore this particular one, but it belonged to her and it gives a glimpse inside her private world,’ says Katherine Higgins, vintage fashion specialist and BBC television presenter. ‘There’s always a frisson around celebrity auctions and even the most humble things can cause excitement. There’s nothing more thrilling than this kind of association with a huge star.’
The mask’s success also reminds us that Hepburn was a fashion icon. She was an independent spirit who dressed how she pleased and whose innate stylishness elevated all manner of ordinary items to must-have fashion status. And if you think her allure has faded in the half century since her heyday, think again: the sale made £4,635,500, over seven times the pre-sale estimate. People registered to bid from 46 countries around the world; 12,000 people attended the pre-sale exhibition; and it had the highest online participation of any Christie’s sale so far.
Unlike some of her contemporaries – such as Elizabeth Taylor – the intrinsic value of Hepburn’s possessions was relatively small. ‘She wasn’t interested in real jewellery and, according to her sons, owned almost none,’ says Adrian Hume-Sayer, director of private collections at Christie’s and head of the sale, who worked with Hepburn’s two sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti to bring the auction together. ‘One of the few jewellery lots was a pair of $65 earrings that she wore to the Oscars. But that fits with her personality. She was a humble person. There wasn’t a hint of the grand dame about her.’
The highest-selling item was Audrey’s Breakfast at Ti any’s script, covered in her handwritten notes. It sold for £632,750, a new record for a script, and was bought by the eponymous New York store. Next was an engraved gold Ti any bangle given to her by Steven Spielberg, who directed her last film, Always, in 1988 (£332,750). Third was a rare painting by the actress (£224,750) followed by her script for 1964’s My Fair Lady (£206,250). Fifth was a photograph of her on the set of that film, taken by Cecil Beaton (£93,750).
There were many photographs in the sale – they formed a large part of the archive that Hepburn kept in an attic room in her Swiss home where she lived until her death in 1993. She was much photographed during the peak years of her career (which began with Roman Holiday in 1953 and ended when she stepped away from the limelight to spend more time with her family in 1967) by the top photographers of the day, such as Cecil Beaton, Norman Parkinson and Richard Avedon. But some of the most fascinating photos are by less famous photographers such as Antony
She was much photographed at the peak of her career by Cecil Beaton, Norman Parkinson and Richard Avedon
Beauchamp, whose beautiful images show her dressed simply in black sweater and Capri pants. The pieces that are quintessentially her are the clothes. The majority of outfits are by Hubert de Givenchy – the designer she is most closely associated with (see page 128) – including the two-piece black dress he designed for her wardrobe for the 1963 film Charade, which sold for £68,750. ‘For me, that’s very her,’ says Katherine Higgins. ‘The length of the skirt, the subtle darts used to create the bodice shape. It’s simple but extremely elegant and reminiscent of the dress she wore in Breakfast at Ti any’s. After that film, the little black dress becomes synonymous with her.’
Thanks to the same movie, she also did wonders for the trench coat, which Holly Golightly wears tightly wrapped around her tiny frame, (Hepburn had a 22in waist). A Burberry example in the sale sold for £68,750. ‘It became a staple of her wardrobe,’ says Hume-Sayer. ‘This one wasn’t the one from the film, it was one of her own, but the fact that it sold for so much speaks of her fashion status.’
Other items immediately associated with her are the leather ballet shoes. Hepburn trained as a ballet dancer before she turned to acting and never lost the ballerina’s
grace and poise. ‘I think it influenced her choice of footwear,’ says Higgins. ‘She was rarely recorded as wearing high heels. The ballet pump really fits with her image, that Parisian Left Bank look with the short gamine hair. This was the era of the stiletto, but she broke the mould.’
‘She was happiest in a pair of Capri pants and ballet slippers,’ agrees HumeSayer. ‘When she put on grand clothes they were a costume for her. She bought the ballet slippers en masse when she heard they were being discontinued, because she wore them at home.’
‘Her style was e ortless and simple,’ concludes Higgins. ‘If you think about early Joan Collins, with the gladiator bra and A-line skirt, it’s a very structured look, it makes movement di cult. Hepburn was a dancer and she wanted to dispose of what was constrictive. Her pieces were easy to move in. It was a style for the modern age and for the modern girl.’