Women of Style & Substance-Audrey Hepburn
What was it about the elfin Audrey Hepburn that so entranced the world a few generations ago?
There have been greater actors, and yet they do not possess a certain indescrible uniqueness that made Audrey, Audrey.
There was a quality about Audrey Hepburn that captured our hearts and also crossed boundaries, very few people disliked this genuinely warm, compassionate and loving woman.
Audrey gave an air of fragility and vulnerability and yet as a young girl in occupied Holland she worked for the resistance, despite the heavy cost to herself and her family if she had been caught. The sufferings that she endured at the hands of the Nazi's would remain with Audrey for the rest of her life and would eventually see her invloved in UNICEF to help the dispossessed in other lands.
What defines Audrey as unique is her ability to remain always, a lady. While skirts got shorter and tops more revealing, Audrey continued to dress with style and grace. She possessed a quality that if she had dressed in a potato sack she would have done it with elegance.
What both men and women see and admire in Audrey Hepburn goes beyond her acting roles and embraces the fact that you can remain a lady even when it is not the fashion. Audrey had her own style and she stayed true to it, she did not follow fashion, she led it.
Then there was her desperation to be a mother, she so longed to have children and yet suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. Until finally she gave birth to her two sons which were a great joy to her.
Through failed marriages and movies that did not do her justice, Audrey prevailed, her personality was much stronger than any movie role and great enough to conquer personal loss.
Who can forget her in 'Roman Holiday' as the young Princess who gives up love for duty. Or in 'Breakfast at Tifanny's' who tries to run from love and yet cannot.
What made Audrey Hepburn so special? I do not know, but the world is still entranced with this delicate yet steely woman of grace.
Written by Marie
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