Apr 1, 2008

Audrey achievable with timeless accessories

By Brenda Butler / Chicago Tribune

She was thin, swan-necked with wide-set eyes and chiseled cheeks.

And taller than you'd think - 5 feet 7 inches.

No style icon, with the exception of Jackie Kennedy, has been so deconstructed.

Her winsome appeal is timeless, so take from Audrey what you will.

And, of course, make it work.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's"
Black pumps, black dress, pearls, earrings, hat. Using these five elements, a slip-wearing Holly Golightly effortlessly dresses in less than five minutes - not counting hair and makeup. Who wouldn't be fabulous with this foolproof formula?
Christian Louboutin patent leather kitten heel pumps, $565, at Barneys New York. Erickson Beamon pearl and rhinestone earrings, $505, at Ikram, Chicago.

"Funny Face"
Discovery of a new "girl" turns a regular Jo Stockton into a photographer's muse - and off the Paris she goes. But once the cameras retreat and the lights dim, who is she left with? Be true to yourself. A clutch, a scarf and dark glasses won't change who you are but will enhance what you're wearing.
Christian Louboutin silk crepe clutch, $990, and Tom Ford sunglasses, $450, both at Neiman Marcus.

"My Fair Lady"
Confounded, Professor Higgins asks why a woman can't be more like a man. But he couldn't have really meant that. After all, he has grown accustomed to the face of the butterfly Eliza Doolittle in all her Edwardian finery of silks, ribbons, rhinestones and earrings.
Lanvin silk ribbon and rhinestone belt, $730, and Erickson Beamon pearl and rhinestone earrings, $505, both at Ikram, Chicago.


BEHIND THE SCENES

We learn the most about that Audrey Hepburn mystique through her film work.
Movie critic Michael Phillips comments on three of his favorites.

Singing "Moon River" on a New York City windowsill, wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, a head scarf and a lovelorn air, Hepburn made an ordinary look seem extraordinary in its reverse-chic. Truman Capote's character Holly Golightly may have been sanitized for the movies, as was the back story on George Peppard's leading man, but for once in the history of Hollywood, the original trailer ballyhoo didn't lie. Hepburn "typifies and glorifies the glamorous playmates of this dizzily spinning world," according to the 1961 trailer. Not even Mickey Rooney's racist hamming as "Mr. Yunioshi" could dent her charm.

Golightly is a portrait in self-creation. As with certain other high-end superstars (such as Cary Grant, who was nearly her co-star in both "Roman Holiday" and "Sabrina"), you sense Hepburn's own self-creation at work in every scene.

By the time "Funny Face" was released in 1957, Hepburn was spoofing her royally pristine image. She wore a black turtleneck and beatniked around a Paris nightclub. She became modeling clay in the hands of Fred Astaire, playing a fashion photographer patterned after Richard Avedon (who consulted on the picture). "I don't want my hair cut!" Hepburn's Jo complains early on. "I don't want my eyebrows up or down! I want them right where they are!" The world didn't listen. Audiences delighted in Hepburn the chameleonic fashion plate.

With a score by the Gershwins, and Kay Thompson thinking 15 different shades of pink as the doyenne of the fashion magazine employing Astaire, "Funny Face" may not scale any choreographic heights. But it's a musical about design whose leading lady is a designer's dream.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins ekes out the compliment as Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle descends his staircase, prior to the Embassy Ball sequence. It is an understatement.

Costume designer Cecil Beaton never had a more exquisite clotheshorse than Hepburn, and among the cinema's greatest collaborations - Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann; Buster Keaton and porkpie hats - the matchup of Hepburn and Beaton is hard to beat. Is the 1964 film version (many-Oscared, including a win for Best Picture) a classic? Not quite. It's too tempting to contemplate what Vincente Minnelli, the originally scheduled director, could've done with the material. George Cukor did well enough, but mainly he rolled out the time-tested, stage-honed material in stately, hands-off fashion, staying well out of his performers' way.

But what performers.