Sixties Style

When Hubert de Givenchy, the French couturier died early in March, one immediately thought about the elegant women he dressed including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Grace Kelly and perhaps most notably, Audrey Hepburn.

Those of us who lived through the 60’s can recall the now iconic image of Ms. Hepburn wearing Givenchy in her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. There she was in a stunning Givenchy black dress, sunglasses, strands of large pearls and elbow length black gloves standing in front of Tiffany’s windows early in the morning with a croissant and coffee. This scene recalls a glamour and style that seems to have disappeared.

The designer and the actress were so sympatico Givenchy designed the clothes for many of her movie roles including Sabrina and Charade. In the murder mystery Charade, with Cary Grant, she wore elegant coats, suits, and trench coats usually with a scarf or hat.

One of my favorite movies starring Ms. Hepburn is Two for the Road. Although the movie, produced in 1964, is not one of her most well-known films it is another look at the style of the 60’s. The story follows the relationship of Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) and Joanna Wallace (Audrey Hepburn) through twelve years of marriage using flashbacks to show the many ups and downs of the relationship as they travel through France is sporty cars. Ms. Hepburn’s clothes often steal the scene.

Two for the Road was released in 1964 when mini-skirts and new fabrics were center stage. In this film Paco Rabanne, the Spanish couturier who shocked the French by often using unconventional materials for his clothing, designed most of Ms. Hepburn’s wardrobe. In the final scene, she is wearing one of his ‘Unwearable Dresses’ made from metal and plastic. In another scene, she wears a dress that seems to be a copy of an Emilio Pucci. She does wear a dress by the British designer Mary Quant dress that has a geometric look and is worn with large oversized white sunglasses that a cover much of her face and look like something from a James Bond movie.

Audrey Hepburn’s clothes represented the elegant and feminine style of the sixties. There were also bell bottoms pants, military style jackets, blue work shirts and overalls,
clothing that is still popular today and represented a turn away from the fifties when women wore dresses in the afternoon and white gloves with their pastel colored spring coats. Pants were for gardening or worn at the beach. One traveled in elegant clothes that included shoes and a handbag that matched.

This week I’ve been watching Audrey Hepburn movies and noticing the elegance. Not just of the clothing, but in the way, she moved. There were no devices in hand, no sweat pants and no “business casual” clothes. All the while remembering, of course, these films were made fifty years ago and the world has been transformed. Now elegance and style seem to be an individual preference.