Also to be filed under "Cliché vs. Classique"
If there’s anyone whose style I could copy, it would be Audrey Hepburn. (Or at least AH as dressed by Edith Head.) I know just about every woman over 20 out there in the blogosphere claims Audrey as their “style icon,” but I’ve felt that way ever since I was 15 and watched her in Sabrina. * If I could pick one look to live in the rest of my life, this (on the right) would be it.
Trouble is, Audrey was built like the proverbial willow tree, and I’m built more like the proverbial barrel cactus. Or to be a bit more complimentary, I’m built like a young and more slender Shirley Winters. (I’d say a young Elizabeth Taylor, but I’ve never had that wasp waist that Liz flaunted in “Butterfield 8.”) Every time I’ve tried to copy this look, I end up looking like a bag of balloons atop a couple of toothpicks. But as of today, I’ve found the Holy Grail of slim black pants, that actually fit and flatter, and look fabulous with my black patent ballet flats. These “Audrey Twill Slim Pants” from the company “Not Your Daughter’s Jeans” are, as the kids say, The Bomb. They actually seem to be cut longer and slimmer in the leg than they appear in the picture, and fit like a dream. They are cut to hit just below the waist as opposed to just above the pudenda as so many pants are these days, and are just perfect for an old broad like me who was actually an adult while Audrey Hepburn was still alive and doing her wonderful work for UNICEF. Not Your Daughter’s Jeans also makes fabulous boot cut jeans, which I have in several colors (gray, black, brown and blue denim). What can I say, when I find something that works I buy it in multiple colors.
*The original version. As much as I adore Julia Ormond she can’t touch Audrey in this role (remake, 1995), though I’ve never understood the “sex appeal” of William Holden; he always seemed to me to be too old for the characters, (another example is “Picnic”) and think Greg Kinnear was a much better and more believable David Larrabee.
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Hi, Pseu. Thank you so much for listing me in your favorite blogs! That made my day. Your new blog is beautiful. I like “proverbial barrel cactus.” That’s funny.
Thanks, Linda! I love your wonderfully dry sense of humor as well.
And doh! I realized I’d spelled your blog name wrong. It’s fixed now. (Insert embarrased emoticon here.)
Thanks for the info, ideefixe. I knew that AH adored Givenchy and his designs, but wasn’t aware that Head’s contribution was so minimal. Just to clarify, when I said “as dressed by” I was thinking of film roles, not real life. Did Head actually design anything other than for films?
It’s not Edith Head, it’s Givenchy. Head’s work on that film was pretty minimal, despite the credits, and Hepburn never wore any of Head’s stuff in real life.