Developing your individual style like the legendary style icon and hero, Audrey Hepburn!

Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 classic film, Funny Face, wearing a red dress designed by Givenchy.

This week would have been the 91st birthday of the greatest style icon the world has ever known, Audrey Hepburn. Her elegant, graceful, timeless, captivating style is still revered to this day. Not only was she a screen legend in Hollywood’s Golden Age, she was also a hero. Her empathy, compassion and kindness made her travel the world to help children in the poorest countries get access to food, healthcare, clean water. Audrey Hepburn’s iconic status goes beyond just physical beauty and gorgeous dresses. Her philanthropy changed the lives of many children in the world.

Audrey Hepburn as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

She herself had faced starvation and undernourishment as a child in Holland in the 1940s during world war II. So, she knew what it was like. This made her determined to help as many children as possible. She was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1988 and awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993. Audrey Hepburn also received the United States’ Presidential Medal of Freedom in December 1992.

Hollywood and style legacy

What made Audrey a true style icon was her individuality. She disrupted Hollywood in the 1950s, with a unique look, her own sense of style and torrents of gracefulness and kindness. This was at a time when women in Hollywood were mostly being cast as the sexy, blonde bombshell. In 1954 she won an Oscar for Best Actress with the film, Roman Holiday (1953). Many of her most iconic ensembles can be seen in her films like Sabrina (1954), Funny Face (1957) and of course, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). I did a photo shoot tribute to Audrey’s style in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Check it out here.

In my opinion, the fictional character, Carrie Bradshaw from the hit TV series Sex & The City (1998 - 2004), is the only relatively modern style icon that comes close to Audrey’s legendary status. Again, I believe this is because Carries’s style was very individualised i.e. styled to suit the character’s personality and lifestyle. Moreover, the show’s costume stylist, Patricia Field mixed vintage and modern pieces to create Carrie’s wardrobe. This is what made Carrie’’s style so timeless, unusual and unforgettable.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City, wearing a vintage style red dress with black polka dots, with a green underlay. Also wearing a black coat with white cuffs and a floral broach at the neck.

Individual style

In short, individual, person style that transcended trends and fashion eras is what made the style of these women so memorable and inspirational to this day. The key to becoming your own style icon, therefore, is to look within. It’s NOT fashion trends. Style should not be uniform across the board with everyone. There’s no beauty in imitation. When we’re following trends, we’re ignoring our own intuition on what’s best for us as individuals. And by accepting these false, external standards, we’re giving up too much of our freedom and individuality. You can become more grounded, intuitive and powerful from following your own individual style. So, forget what the trends are, forget what anyone is telling you should be wearing this season.

How to craft your individual style

1. Know yourself. Think about who you are, what you stand for and what makes you happy. What’s your purpose and mission in life? Let your style be determined by this formation.

2. Use a personal style formula. This is a formula I came up with a few years ago when I was teaching people how to transition to preloved shopping in markets, vintage stores, thrift stores and clothes swaps. Here’s the formula:

Your colour palette (colours that look good on you)

+

Your body shape (cuts and styles that work for your silhouette)

+

Your lifestyle / personality

=

Your Personal Style Formula!

A combination of these three elements will give your style authenticity, timelessness and individuality. Not to mention, iconic in your own right!

♥ Nina Gbor

Grace Kelly

I’ve talked abundantly about how my love for style came from watching the icons of the silver screen such as Audrey Hepburn. Today, on what would have been Grace Kelly’s 90th birthday, I’m paying homage to her as another style icon from Hollywood’s golden era who has had major influence on my love for 1950s style. Due to Grace Kelly’s elegant style, her talent, her charm and well, her ‘gracefulness’ amongst other things, history might forever continue to regard her as an inimitable, mythical creature.

Grace Kelly’s iconic outfit in the 1954 classic film, Rear Window was designed by Edith Head.

In case you don’t know about this legend, Grace Kelly was born on November 12th, 1929 in Philadelphia, USA. She had a short-lived, yet powerful Hollywood career that earned her A-list status in the 1950s with a legacy that loomed larger than life. Grace played her first major role as a supporting character in the 1952 classic film, High Noon with Gary Cooper. With several roles in Hitchcock films and alongside other silver screen greats like and James Stewart, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra in films like Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and High Society (1956), it was her performance in The Country Girl (1954) that won her an Oscar in 1955 for Best Actress. Grace Kelly soon went from Hollywood Princess to becoming the Princess of Monaco as she traded film scripts for tiaras when she married Monaco’s Crown Prince Rainier in 1956. She passed away in 1982.  

Grace Kelly during her 1955 Academy Award win for Best Actress.

Even though style is very important to me, I’ve always believed that grace is really what makes the person. As we strive to perfect our outward, physical appearance, I believe it's our responsibility to work on ourselves internally, in order to evolve to the best version of ourselves. When I think of the word grace, I think of qualities like courteousness, integrity, goodwill and dignity. From my experience, the hallmark for eliciting positive outcomes in most circumstances comes from having grace. In her life, Grace Kelly appears to have lived up to her name by exuding much grace (and style) in nearly everything she did. And she did it splendidly with grace. And most things she did, she did them gracefully. It appears that grace made that woman.

Grace Kelly’s glamorous, classic style consisted of many ball gowns and formal pieces. So, I decided to pay tribute using a 1950s pink vintage chiffon ball gown I found in a vintage store, four years ago. Grace Kelly was the first thing that came to mind when I spotted this dress. It reminded me of her blue chiffon dress in the film To Catch a Thief. 

Grace Kelly’s blue ball gown in To Catch a Thief (1955).

STYLING

In staying true to Grace Kelly style, I simply wore the dress with pearls but ommitted the white gloves.

The Restyle 

As a sustainable stylist, I needed to find an alternative way to wear this dress for a different, more casual occasion. This is crucial to reducing textile waste to landfill, as it lets you re-use a garment that might otherwise rarely or never get used again. There are several things I could have done with it but I went the simple route of wearing a denim jacket over a ball gown. The juxtaposition of something so casual as denim with such a formal piece is a marriage that actually worked in this instance.

Styling tip

Try this basic technique of wearing something casual like denim over one of your more formal or dressy pieces to make it casual. You can also try wearing a t-shirt over it or a sleeved, button-down shirt, tied at the front.  The intention is to help you get more use out of your clothes so that you look stylish and love your clothes longer. It’s a phenomenal way to make your wardrobe sustainable.

Outfit sourced from:

Pink Vintage Ball Gown: April’s Caravan Vintage Boutique

Denim Jacket: Salvos Stores Op Shop

Nina Gbor’s photography by Brunela Fenalte.

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles