Let's continue the Hubert de Givenchy thread that started with yesterday's post with a brief focus on his connection with Audrey Hepburn.
As stated in Givenchy's obituary published yesterday, the French designer created wardrobes for many films starring Hepburn. Maybe this parallel career as costume designer was somehow linked with his family's passion for designing sets.
His maternal great-grandfather, Jules Dieterle, was indeed a set designer who also created designs for the Beauvais factory; one of his great-great-grandfathers also designed sets for the Paris Opera.
There are quite a few films you may want to rewatch to pay tribute to Givenchy, but a quick one to find is American romantic comedy/mystery film "Charade" (1963) that can easily be legally downloaded for free from the Internet Archive site.
Universal Pictures published indeed the movie omitting the word "Copyright", "Copr.", or the symbol "©" for a mistake. The invalid copyright notice meant that the film entered the public domain in the United States immediately upon its release.
Directed by Stanley Donen and based on "The Unsuspecting Wife" (1961) short story by Peter Stone, the film opens with simultaneous translator Regina "Reggie" Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) on a skiing holiday. Reggie has just decided to divorce her husband Charles and, while talking with her friend Sylvie about her decision, she meets by chance a charming American stranger, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant).
On her return to Paris, she finds her apartment stripped bare, Charles is instead murdered on a train while trying to leave Paris. Reggie is left to solve the puzzle of Charles' life with the help of Peter, analysing the very few clues in her husband's travel bag - a letter addressed to her, a ticket to Venezuela, passports in multiple names and other assorted but useless items.
When we first meet her, Reggie is stylishly dressed for the mountains in a slim-fit skiing suit, a perfectly cut modern fur top and a dome-shaped fur hat.
The next outfit she wears when she goes back to Paris is a beige coat matched with a pill-box hat (and accessorised with Louis Vuitton luggage). This ensemble is almost symbolical of her new condition, the neutral shade goes well with the bare decor of the empty flat. Reggie also receives the news of her husband's death while wearing this design.
It is a sad moment, but comedy will return soon in an unlikely moment: at Charles' funeral, Reggie the widow is dressed in black with a hat characterised by a perfectly spherical and architectural bubble-shaped veil.
In the deserted church she highlights to Sylvie that there isn't a very large turn out at the function. "Did Charles have any friends?" Sylvie asks her, "Don't ask me, I'm only the widow" Reggie stoically replies, her answer made even more comical by the contrast created by her solemnly elegant attire.
While there is a lovely little black dress matched with a jacket that Reggie wears to a night club, the best outfits in the movie are probably the coats in bold colours: there's a red one matched with a leopard hat and another one in mustard accessorised with black gloves, an iconic ensemble Reggie wears towards the end of the film when she discovers the truth about Charles' life and murder.
There's obviously plenty of separates and suits as well, and some lovely hats (check out the white helmet that seems to anticipate Space Age fashion...) that definitely make it worth re-watching "Charade" and take notes of the styles you may want to recreate for yourself. Enjoy the film!
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