Henry Clarke

“[Her] immense enchanting eyes have the effect of making half the audience feel slightly in love and the other half feel a vague impulse to write out checks for war relief”

At the advent of the ’60s, American Vogue was sceptical of Hepburn’s turn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. “In Miss Hepburn’s hands, Holly Golightly remains an incorrigible innocent… From the moment she appears, wearing an extravagantly silly evening dress and eating a bagel in front of Tiffany’s at dawn, until the last frame when, dripping wet, she looks for her cat in Spanish Harlem, she is the child-woman who, in effect, forever sings that non-torch song “How Long Has This Been Going On?” (Capote’s Holly would have known, but that’s another story.)” It had no such qualms about her role in My Fair Lady, however, calling her “the enchantress of the new, extravagantly beautiful movie”, although it did note that Elizabeth Taylor was offered the part before her. “Miss Taylor, however, was otherwise occupied.”

Henry Clarke

“Fit and dashing and slim as a reed; from the top of her cropped little mane of hair to her toes, marvellous looking in a contemporary way”

Inevitably, much was made of Hepburn’s relationship with Givenchy. American Vogue photographed her in an editorial that celebrated “the smashing days of Givenchy” in November 1964: “a feeling of taller, narrower proportions… long necks, small midriffs, pretty legs – exquisite clothes to wear and wear…” Meanwhile, the British edition dispatched Henry Clarke to capture Hepburn in the Roman countryside wearing new-season looks for March 1971. “Audrey Hepburn has lived all her life as if every minute and every new fashion were born for her: as Eliza Doolittle, she looked as absolutely beautiful in rags as a tiara, as Mrs Andrea Dotti – wife of the Italian psychiatrist – she looks as naturally ravishing in jeans as cyclamen chiffon,” reads the introduction to the shoot, titled Star in a Givenchy Heaven. By this point in her life, Hepburn had the secrets to health and happiness more or less sussed. “You try to exercise, but you can’t always; you eat the things that are good for you, but you also eat things that are not so good for you. Let’s face it: a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me… I don’t believe in any rigid rules. You have to be as relaxed as possible about food and fitness and the rest of it, or you’ll be a slave to your beauty habits… You may have great skin but you become a robot. The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.”