Remember when Audrey Hepburn defined elegance in a little black dress?
Written by Marianna Cerini, CNNRemember when actress Audrey Hepburn turned a sleek black dress into an enduring symbol of understated style? It was 1961, and Hepburn was playing the part of troubled call girl Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards’ “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” based on the novella by Truman Capote.In the film’s opening scene, she appears at dawn, gliding out of a yellow cab outside upmarket jewelry store, Tiffany’s, on a deserted Fifth Avenue in New York. She’s dressed in a slinky black satin gown paired with long satin gloves and large tortoiseshell sunglasses, strands of pearls around her neck and a diamante ornament in her hair. Sipping coffee and nibbling on a pastry, she gazes at the jewelry store’s window. In a single scene, she defined one of fashion’s most iconic garments: the little black dress (aka LBD).British actress Audrey Hepburn on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany’s based on the novel by Truman Capote and directed by Blake Edwards. (Photo by Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty ImagesIn fairness, that defining moment wasn’t all Hepburn’s doing. The frock was designed by none other than Hubert de Givenchy, who worked on Hepburn’s entire wardrobe for the movie, together with costume designer Edith Head, a couturier whose aesthetics were all about sophistication and understated glamour. Givenchy created a dress that combined both of those aspects. At the front, the sleeveless silhouette had a simple but modish bateau neckline. At the back, it featured edgy, strategically placed cut outs revealing her shoulder blades in an alluring, subtly sexy way.
