Biographer fears Hepburn revival feeds false image

Retailer Gap has used pictures of Hepburn in 'Funny Face' on TV and web ads. Picture / Reuters

NEW YORK - Hollywood legend Audrey Hepburn is back in vogue as a style icon more than 13 years after her death - but a biographer fears the revival will feed a misconceived image of the actress, who never cared much about fashion.

Hepburn, who is often named as one of the most beautiful women of all time, is inspiring the new season's fashion line-up with her classic but simple style of skinny black pants, flat pumps and little, black dresses.

Retailer Gap is leading the drive, using pictures of the actress in skinny black pants on billboards and in a television and Web ad, dancing in the 1957 movie Funny Face set to rock band AC/DC's song Back in Black.

Another US retailer J Crew has set up a Little Black Dress Shop in its stores.

Author Donald Spoto, who this week released a new biography on the Oscar-winning actress called Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn, said he is not surprised by the renewed focus on Hepburn.

"Audrey Hepburn represents a kind of elegance that may be especially appreciated in an era of torn jeans. Her combination of modesty and simplicity are a wonderful corrective in these times of vulgar and empty celebrity," he said.

But he said he felt this emphasis on fashion and style minimised Hepburn's significant achievements as an actress. Later in life Hepburn was very active in humanitarian work.

"(It) also directly contradicts her own sense of values, which did not place clothes very highly on a list of important things," he said.

Hepburn, who died of colon cancer in 1993 aged 63, always played down her own beauty, saying her look was attainable.

"Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses, and the little sleeveless dresses," she once said.

But her classic style has endured and remained in demand. The black Givenchy dress she wore in the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's is expected to sell at an auction in December for around $100,000.

Spoto said he wrote about Hepburn because he was disappointed in previous works on her, with the actress treated as a "stained glass window figure" rather than a human being who struggled.

His book reveals Hepburn desperately wanted children but had bad luck with famous boyfriends who were sterile.

She did finally have a son, Sean, with American actor Mel Ferrer in 1960. Sean Ferrer allowed Gap to use his mother in their campaign with a significant donation to be made to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund. She had another son in 1970 with second husband, Italian psychologist Andrea Doretti.

"The most surprising thing was the constant thread of heartache and disappointment in her life, which she bore with magnificent grace and courage," said Spoto.

- REUTERS