Little black dress

The little black dress (actually a long black dress) worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s has just been auctioned off for a record $924,588 dollars at Christies in London, on Tuesday. This was roughly six times the highest estimate for the amount of money that the dress would bring in.

The dress was designed by Givenchy, who later donated it for a sale to help the famous “City of Joy” charity in Calcutta:

The dress, an iconic piece of cinematic history, was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, who became Hepburn’s life-long friend in 1953. He donated the dress to Dominic Lapierre, founder of the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India’s poor…

Hepburn, who died in 1993, devoted much of her time in her later life to her role as Ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

City of Joy Aid is supporting the work of more than 1,000 social workers, doctors, nurses, therapists and educators in India, helping more than four million sufferers of tuberculosis, cholera and leprosy. [Link]

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p>Givenchy made 3 such dresses for Hepburn – the other two are in museums. The charity was founded by novelist Dominique Lapierre who wrote a book of the same name which later became a movie starring the incomparable Om Puri and also Patrick Swayze.

Hepburn was one classy dame. Her commitment to helping others lives on long after she’s dead and gone.

55 thoughts on “Little black dress

  1. “But of course! The one I rememeber is “Man Pasand” with Tina Munim playing Audrey’s role.”

    Thank you, Bitterlemons. I am going to look for Man Pasand at my local Indian video store this weekend. I can watch any Dev Anand movie.

  2. Thank you, Bitterlemons. I am going to look for Man Pasand at my local Indian video store this weekend. I can watch any Dev Anand movie.

    I highly recommend Man Pasand because Tina Munim is just a cutie in that movie and the songs are fab as well. And I must say it was very well made for a knockoff.

  3. “were there more varieties of actresses and beauty in the Golden days of film?”

    As one who is “closer to the end than the beginning” (to quote the aging journalist played by William Holden in Network), I often wonder what really is the Golden Age. Is it a different age for the different generations or is it a static concept? My Golden Age would be Bogie and Bacall, the swagger of John Wayne, the earnest Midwestern look of Henry Fonda, but not Audrey Hepburn, though she did act opposite Bogart in Sabrina. In Indian cinema, my Golden Age would be the “early” Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Devanand, Guru Dutt. (The early, black&white part is important, because their influence reigned over several generations.)

    All icons that were in their prime right BEFORE I turned 10 or 12 and started to idoloze movie stars. Applying the same logic, would a typical mutineer’s Golden Age be the era following my Golden Age or would it be the same as mine?

    My mind is very preoccupied, indeed, with this and similar issues of great import. Another slow day at the office.

  4. Floridian:

    There is also a later movie with Juhi Chawla and one of the Kapoor guys. Don’t know the name though…

  5. Floridian, There’s a hit marathi play based on Pygmalion. Written by P L Deshpande. Paresh Raval used to do Gujarati version, I think. Gujus in the house, please correct me if I’m wrong.