Audrey Hepburn, like her no one ever

Time flies: from that January 20, 1993, when Audrey Hepburn died in her sleep at her home in Switzerland, it was already 30 years. Everything has been written about her and over time she has become an icon, a symbol of grace and elegance. With her cigarette trousers, flat ballet flats and boat necklines she dictated the style of an era, becoming a reference and her cinematic interpretations made her unforgettable, whether it is for the role of Holly
Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s or for that of Princess Anna’s Roman holidays.

«Audrey was a positive, absolute and timeless model. No one like her has been so universally loved and admired in the history of cinema. With her kindness and that irresistible smile she conquered everyone, but unlike other stars she was adored above all by the female audience. Since the 1950s, every girl wanted to look like her and still today she remains a style reference, even for her very young girls », she says Chiara Pasqualetti Johnsonauthor of the latest book Audrey. One life, one style (White Star, 224 pages, 150 color illustrations). And it is to her that we asked a few questions, to remember the actress on this January 20, 30 years after her disappearance.

Like Marilyn, like James Dean, Audrey Hepburn has become a myth: why in your opinion? What does he have that others don’t have?
“All of them have shown that beauty is not enough. And in Audrey’s case this is more than ever. Behind her success there was a mountain of work, commitment and dedication, but also solid moral principles with which she never compromised. Her persistence in trying to become a dancer had given her an iron discipline that was of great help when she decided to become an actress, as well as her European upbringing, but also an almost childlike spontaneity that she had retained despite the horrors lived during the war. The style that made her legendary was not a stage dress, but a reflection of her personality. Even Givenchy’s perfect creations took on new life on her: no one else would ever have valued those clothes in the same way. I think of the little black dress of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a garment that was normally associated with the murky charm of dark ladies. On her it becomes the emblem of elegance, but also the symbol of a new femininity. That dress, worn by Audrey with her face soap and water and a pair of huge sunglasses, marks an epochal change. After that film, it becomes normal for a girl to wear an evening dress early in the morning, but above all it becomes normal to be single and experience the same sexual freedom as the character of Holly Golightly, the protagonist played by Audrey in 1961».

It’s been 30 years since her death: who is the new Audrey Hepburn today?
“It’s hard to compare with a figure like Audrey. Her elegance and her style are still a model imitated by movie stars today. There are actresses who in my opinion look a lot like her, like Lily Collins, but it’s not enough to look the same to be “the new Audrey”. She stood out precisely because she was different from all of them. In an era dominated by the explosive curves of pin-up girls, she had established herself with her androgynous physique and ballerina’s posture. I’m very curious to see how she will be interpreted by Rooney Mara in the new film by Luca Guadagnino which will be released this year ».

Who would Audrey Hepburn be with today? Which way? Who would we see her photographed with?
“Audrey has dedicated the latter part of her life to supporting Unicef. She herself, as a child, had been rescued by volunteers at the end of the war, receiving help that she had never forgotten. So she had chosen to become a goodwill ambassador, committing herself not only in words, but by traveling and personally visiting the places that in those years were the poorest and most difficult in the world. She had headed straight for the epicenter of the disaster, visiting Ethiopia and Somalia. Thanks to her, the terrible African reality had had a visibility that no one had ever been able to give it, making everyone open their eyes to those horrors. I believe that today you would be alongside Iranian women, exposing yourself to the forefront and using your immense fame to give a voice to those who don’t have one ».

A lesson we should all learn from Audrey Hepburn?
«“Elegance is the only beauty that never fades”. I chose to print this very sentence from Audrey on the back cover of my book. In these words there is the wisdom of a woman who over time had learned to accept her defects and to value what is beautiful that we all have, inside and outside of us ».

They are in the book 150 portraits of Audrey, from Richard Avedon’s shots to movie posters to rare family snapshots that take her away from the spotlight. These below are just a taste.