The exhibit will have extremely rare home videos of Audrey in Rome, as well as personal and paparazzi photos of her – the paparazzi often mailed Audrey the photos they had taken of her – and when possible, the very clothes she was wearing in those pictures will be on display as well. For those who have seen Timeless Audrey, it sounds like there will be enough new material to make this exhibit worth your while, and if you haven’t yet seen Timeless Audrey, then here’s a sneak preview for you!

Information is still trickling in at this point, but I can give you some basics, plus a lot of lovely links to look through. The Italian branch of UNICEF, which is working with The Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, has a new mini-site up about Audrey’s work with UNICEF and the exhibit, which you can see here. 25% of ticket proceeds will go towards UNICEF Italy’s ongoing mission in Chad, Africa. Not only that, but there will be a special card designed just for this Italian exhibit, and the purchase of this card turns into a donation for a course of vitamins and minerals for a malnourished child – though if you can’t make it to the exhibit but would still like to help in the name of Audrey, you can buy the card online here. A really lovely blog that’s heavy on pictures has been set up on Tumblr, so if you’re already on there, it’ll be very easy for you to follow and get a daily dose of Audrey. You may also read more about the intentions behind the exhibit, and Sean and Luca’s thoughts on it, on the Children’s Fund website here. And while I don’t have a link yet for this last bit, I can tell you that a picture book called Audrey A Roma (Audrey In Rome) will be on sale at the exhibit and elsewhere, designed by Audrey’s son Luca Dotti. It will be in Italian bookstores and the Italian Amazon, but before you complain, word is that the book is being translated into English, French and German, and will be released sooner rather than later! Stay tuned.

As for the details … if you can make it to the exhibit, here’s what you need to know: The exhibit is at the Ara Pacis Museum Lungotevere in Augusta, Rome, and runs every day but Mondays from 9am to 7pm (no entries after 6pm). Admission is 10€, but discounts can be had, and there are certain cases for free admission.

The recent exhibit on Italian designer Fernanda Gattinoni had its last day in Paris yesterday, but if you couldn’t make the exhibit, no worries. Lovely reader Castor was kind enough to visit and take loads of pictures, which she said I could share with all of you. She was also kind enough to translate the text pertaining to Audrey, which I will copy and paste for you. So, without further ado, Castor’s pictures for everyone to enjoy:

silk gauze dress trimmed with embroidery and small pink and blue appliqué horses

silk gauze dress in ivory trimmed with silver embroidery and small blue velvet appliqué horses

an autographed publicity still for Fernanda, signed Audrey Ferrer

ivory satin organza dress dotted with tiny rhinestones

In 1955, Maria De Matteis, the costume maker from King Vidor’s War & Peace (1956) asked Fernanda Gattinoni to make Audrey Hepburn’s costumes.
Fernanda Gattinoni liked so much the costumes with a fluid and vertical form she made for the movie that at practically the same time, she was inspired by the protagonist of War & Peace to dedicate the collection Natascia to the empire style.
Audrey Hepburn was the first customer of the collection and ordered no less than five dresses and one coat. From that time, she became one of the most assiduous customers of the house. Nevertheless, even if a trusting relationship existed between the two women, they never really became friends.
“She was too perfect and I don’t like perfect people” claimed Fernanda Gattinoni later. Despite this, the great designer always recognized the incomparable elegancy of the actress: “She had an exceptional physique. Tall and thin, all the dresses she wore became essentials and luminous like a jewel.”

Again, a huge thank you to Castor for sharing all these wonderful pictures with us. If you like what you’ve seen, please leave a comment with your thanks!

If you’re interested and are in or around Paris, better move fast, because the exhibit only lasts until July 30th. Admission is free, nicely enough, and is open Monday through Friday from 10-1, then reopens for the hours of 3-6. For more information and photos of the exhibit (including the picture I’ve used), go to Focus On Style’s blog here.

Thanks to Kendal for the link.

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.

Running now through August 17, if you are around the Lorraine region of France, feel free to drop by Château de Haroué, a modest 82 room bungalow (chateau actually means castle in French, and the French do not use that term lightly!). It is there that you will find a carefully chosen bevy of gowns designed by Paris’s most renowned designers: Balenciaga, Venet, and Givenchy himself. The surroundings are astounding, the gowns are divine, and as an added bonus, the long black column dress Audrey Hepburn wore in the beginning credits of Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Givenchy’s own copy, and one of the three originals – will be on display for your pleasure.

Can anyone make this trip? It’s about 4 hours outside of Paris, for those in and around the area, and I’m sure your fellow fans are just dying to see some photographs. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it: I’m doing quite a lot of traveling this year and I’m already stretching myself thin as it is! But still, to see that gown in person, finally …

Special thanks to Kendal, for typing out the original article on this exhibit, as found in the May issue of Vanity Fair (with Grace Kelly as cover girl).

I hope you’ve been enjoying the pictures from the Timeless Audrey exhibit! Perhaps someday soon when I have a free day (hah!), I can maybe drop by the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund office and ask if they need help and maybe suss out some information, like where the exhibit will go next. You should all have the chance to see it in person! I shall try for you.

In the meantime, my brother-in-law unearthed the script for Why Can’t I Be Audrey Hepburn? among his things and lent it to me. Not sure if it was for my screenwriting class that I’ll be taking, or because I’m somewhat enamored of the lady, but after hearing about this script (and the rumors surrounding it) for ages, I can’t wait to read it!

And the site will be back up before too long. I’d love to give it an overhaul and finally debut it as originally intended, in English, French and German, but je ne parle pas bien français — until the end of the semester, that is. So for now my focus is getting it back up, and when I have the leisure time, revamping everything and finally getting the picture galleries sorted properly. I love pictures of Audrey more than anything, but those galleries are the bane of my existence.

I’ll be back soon with a review of the script and whatever else I may unearth in the meantime. Stay beautiful!

First I’d like to thank Daniel yet again for getting us in to the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award ceremony, and for being so very generous as to allow me to take all the pictures I wanted and share them with you. As such, I ask that you please not use (or abuse) these photos in any way. Pictures are not allowed in the exhibit on a normal basis but an exception was granted, and I’d like to show that not only I but all of us are appreciative of this exception and will follow the rules. So, like all beautiful things, look and admire but leave it as you found it. Thank you, and enjoy the view.

Edit: Oh shoot! I was sure I’d mentioned this in a previous post, but on looking back I realize I never gave thanks to the person who made this trip to Berlin possible. I’m such a heel. Anyway, if you’re the sort of Audrey fan who hits all the cool websites then you know Richard from Audrey1. It was his idea for him, Kendal (whom you may also know) and I to see this exhibit while we could, made all the arrangements, everything to make sure we appeared at the door in one piece. So click the link and drop by the forums (if you don’t already) or write a note saying, “You’re cool!” Or be original and make up your own thing, just say thanks for having this idea and the drive to do it that gave us a good look at the usually mysterious exhibit we’ve all heard about but have never really seen before now. Thank you, Richard, and I’m very sorry I didn’t in fact put up a thank you note earlier like my demented mind thought I had. Please forgive!

Update: You can also view the full gallery here on the website, if you don’t feel like leaving to visit Flickr. Simply click here.

Here’s the story: Mark Shaw was assigned to photograph a new starlet, Audrey Hepburn, on set and around the Paramount Studios lot for a spread in Life Magazine. We all know the pictures now, including the shots of Audrey wearing a large man’s dress shirt and little else, which thoroughly scandalized her mum. David said that while Life’s records showed that the original film negatives had been returned to his father Mark, Life was notoriously bad at recordkeeping and it was supposed that the negatives had just been lost forever. David had begun to scan prints of his father’s pictures when Mark’s first wife died, and as the estate were going through her things, they stumbled across a box in her basement with all these wonderful film negatives in it. They scanned the negatives for beautiful, crisp pictures for the book, and printed a select few to be available as prints to purchase at the exhibit. While it was quite crowded and there was a lot going on, I do believe I overheard quite a few orders for prints, which made me very happy. And David said that he was under the impression that Audrey was still as popular as ever and would always be that way, which made me happy. In fact, he said that after going through all these photos: “It was impossible to take a bad picture of her. Even first thing in the morning, no makeup, hair a mess, she was great!”

Here’s some pictures from around the shop:









Many, many thanks to the lovely Beth for letting me know about this fun event, for letting me show up, and for letting me take all the pictures I wanted. You’re the best! Thanks as well go to David Shaw for putting this book together and listening to me ramble; Caroline Bloxsom, the director of licensing for Audrey’s estate, for also listening to me ramble and answering my questions; and George Takei for being so lovely and talking to me. He and his husband are the sweetest people.

Okay then! If you can’t wait, you just neeeeed this book, then your local retailer should have some copies. If they don’t, then there’s always good ol’ Amazon to do the trick. Their price is really good, too! If you’re feeling a bit broke and pinched right now but really wish you could have an Audrey fix to take your mean reds away, well then… I’ll just have to give a copy or two away in a contest once I’m back from traveling, won’t I? It’s been so long since I’ve given something away, it seems only fair. In celebration of Audrey’s upcoming 80th birthday and a beautiful new book, it only seems right. Stay tuned.