It was nearly 10 years ago that I went to a nondescript building in Beverly Hills and got to see Audrey Hepburn’s iconic black and white Ascot races dress from My Fair Lady before it was sold at auction for $100,000. (The hat was included as well.) I even got to take a picture with it! Back then, it was sold to a man who had grand ideas to open up his own memorabilia museum.

Fast forward to this weekend, where the dress was once again up for auction in Beverly Hills. But this time the person selling it was none other than legendary actress Debbie Reynolds! At some point she had bought the dress and had a costume museum of her own, but things changed and she had to sell a good amount of her amazing collection to pay off the debts. Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from The Seven Year Itch – you know, that dress – sold for a whopping $4.6 million. The Ascot dress? It did alright, selling for $3.7 million. That’s quite a raise in value in just ten years!

No word yet on who the new owner is, or if the costume will be put on display anywhere.

Speaking of things I’ve missed, when the most famous dress in the world, the long black Breakfast at Tiffany’s dress, was auctioned in 2006 it was widely publicised when someone wore it. The model for Christie’s, seen out and about modeling on the streets, was published everywhere. When Natalie Portman posed in it for Harper’s Bazaar, I bought a copy to carefully cut apart, scan and share with you. But for some reason I heard nothing about model Georgia Frost modeling the gown for ES Magazine! Thankfully, I happened to stumble across Style Bubble, who has pictures and a brief write-up for your viewing pleasure.

- Our Dutch friend Joop says that dear Audrey was recently voted the most beautiful woman ever, which is quite an achievement! Lovely picture and short story (in Dutch) here.

- A dress from Funny Face recently went up for auction and was sold for the impressive price of $56,250.00, though I can’t seem to find which dress it is. Anyone? You can read more here. (From Kendal)

- And finally, an article on how Audrey Hepburn shaped sex. It’s an interview with Sam Wasson, author of the new Fifth Avenue, 5 AM book, and the interview was done at Café Audrey in Hollywood, a place where I’ve spent quite a bit of time! You can read the interview here, but be warned that Sam drops the F-bomb towards the end.

(at Café Audrey in 2008)

Kerry Taylor Auctions will be selling a good collection of Audrey’s personal and film wardrobe, every piece authenticated, on December 7 and 8. This is big news not only because it’s rare to find wardrobe that has been authenticated, it’s even more rare to find such a large collection being auctioned all at once. More good news out of this: half of the proceeds go directly to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund! What a nice surprise.

It was a surprise to learn that the clothes being auctioned off are currently part of a small touring exhibit that has or will hit New York and Paris before being displayed in London. I wish I would have known sooner! Not that I can just jet off at the drop of a hat, but so other people in the area could have advance notice. Bah. Anyway, collectors and designers are very excited about all of this and estimate that the auction could raise more than £100,000. Not too shabby! And if past auctions have been any indications, this will be a conservative lowball estimate.

So there’s that! It’d be nice to have even more information come out soon, but we shall see. In the meantime, here’s the article in Vogue, here’s a press release via the Children’s Fund site (PDF), and here’s the auction page from Kerry Taylor’s website with pictures and information on the lots, plus the tour dates for the exhibit. I’m afraid we’ve just missed New York, but if anyone is in Paris or will be December 1 and 2, you still have a chance!

P.S. For all you fashionistas out there, there looks to be quite a lot of vintage Chanel jewelry and couture up for sale as well. Absolutely gorgeous and definitely worth a look. And some Lanvin, Balenciaga, Dior, Schiaparelli, Mary Quant and, of course, Givenchy.

The next auction in question will happen sometime in December through Kerry Taylor Auctions, and will feature quite a lot of Audrey’s wardrobe, over 30 pieces. This alone is pretty exciting, but it also seems that most of the clothing in this auction is Givenchy, which is even better. There are a few film wardrobe pieces, including that divine black lace dress from How to Steal a Million (right) and a black dress worn for Paris When It Sizzles promo shots, and even some accessories and personal letters from the very early days of her career. It looks to be an exciting auction that will most likely drum up a fair amount of press, so keep an eye out on the newsstands for some neat articles and pictures. You can read more about the auction via the Telegraph (and thanks to Kendal for sending the link!), and keep checking Kerry Taylor’s website for more information as the date gets closer. I’m sure the lot will be featured in the Passion For Fashion auction beginning December 8, and you can order a catalogue if you’d like through the site.

Hello everyone, I hope you had a good holiday, if you celebrate anything. If not, then I hope you enjoyed a day off to laze around in your pajamas all day. I’m sorry I’ve been MIA lately, I was silly enough to try and work two jobs during the holidays. Hit me with a fish the next time I get that ridiculous idea in my head! Thank you for your patience yet again, and here’s your bit of post-holiday news.

Christie’s had yet another film memorabilia auction on December 19th, but it didn’t really seem to make any major news outlets, at least not that I could find. This was very surprising! But here’s all of the Audrey Hepburn specific autions for you, since that’s what we’re interested in:

Lot 0078: a batch of 15 magazines featuring Audrey on the cover, all from the 1950s. The estimated going price was between £400-600, but was actually sold for £312. (That’s still a whole lot, though!)
Lot 0079: Sheet music for Moon River, signed by Audrey Hepburn. The inscription reads, “To Al, best wishes, Audrey Hepburn.” While the estimated selling price was between £400-600, the final bid was for £1,680!
Lot 080: A knee-length coat and a cream-coloured dress, both made by Givenchy, which Audrey wore in the film Charade. In the Criterion Edition of the film in the commentary, screenwriter Peter Stone mentioned that his wife and Audrey Hepburn were the same size (though Audrey had bigger shoulders), and he would take the clothes that Audrey didn’t want for his wife to wear. These two items were taken for Mrs. Stone and are now being sold by her. The estimated selling price for these two items combined was between £10,000-15,000, and the actual selling price was £14,400. Whew!

Since the sale of these particular items didn’t make the news, I don’t think there’s any way of finding out who bought the dress and coat. Whoever it was, they’ve got a good deal! Unlike the sale of the black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey definitely wore this dress and coat. I hope the new owner(s) wouldn’t mind putting it on display for some of us to see, too.

P.S. I was right about which dress would be sold, too!

In the meantime, you can read more about the auction as a whole here, and see some other great pieces that will be up for sale that day.

Anyway, it’s an entertaining read altogether. You can read the full press release here, and read more about the auction as a whole through the Bonhams website here. No lot information is up yet, but there are viewing times scheduled, so for any L.A. fans out there, it might be worth it to stop in and take some pictures. Oh, and the inkwell is expected to sell for $1,000-1,500.