AN APPRECIATION : The Effortless Style of ‘Miss Hepburn’

It was the mid-’60s and fashion was going to extremes. Models were leaping across the stark white pages of Vogue magazine in hip boots and dresses made out of plastic squares. Their hair hung in huge tangled manes or in severe geometric bobs.

Audrey Hepburn, who died Wednesday, was on the fashion pages, too, with a style all her own. In one memorable shot she stood in a field of white, with her short cap of dark hair and precision-painted black eyeliner, wearing a simple blue button-down, oxford-cloth blouse.

She was breathtakingly beautiful and inspired thousands of imitators. But her style was unequaled. No one did the high-end ‘60s look (heavy black eyeliner, big sunglasses, short skirts and white boots) better than Audrey Hepburn.

Only she looked good wearing huge sunglasses and a scarf wrapped tightly around her head and knotted under her chin. Only she could dress on the run, as she did in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” slapping a picture hat on top of her ponytail and scrambling for her alligator pumps. She was out the door in minutes, looking stunning.

Hubert de Givenchy recently recalled the first time he met her. A “Miss Hepburn” had called his office to make an appointment to come by and discuss clothes for a film. He was thrilled. He had always admired Katharine Hepburn and was flattered that she would consider him. At the appointed hour he opened his door to find not the great Kate but a waifish girl. He vividly remembers what she wore: high-waisted black toreador pants, black ballet shoes, a T-shirt and a heavily decorated matador’s jacket.

Givenchy designed “Miss Hepburn’s” clothes for the 1954 movie “Sabrina,” and it was the beginning of a lifelong partnership. She was his muse; he was her confidant.

Hepburn’s fans have favorite scenes from her movies; from “Funny Face,” where she floats down the steps of the Paris Opera house trailing a long silk scarf, imploring Fred Astaire to “take the picture”; from “Sabrina,” where she is turned out in her new Paris finery at the railway station.

Although her public appearances became less frequent, her fashion influence never abated. Designers Todd Oldham and Isaac Mizrahi still credit her for inspiring them during their Wonder Bread years, and they still make references to her in their collections. One of the highest accolades a new, pretty, young face can receive is a comparison to Audrey Hepburn. Kate Moss is the latest recipient; Allure magazine credits her with having Hepburn cheekbones.

But it’s unlikely you’ll ever hear someone say, “She has the style of Audrey Hepburn,” because no one has ever come close.