Audrey Hepburn age nine, taken by an unknown photographer in 1938.

The cult of Audrey Hepburn: how can anyone live up to that level of chic?

An exhibition of rare photographs of Audrey Hepburn reveals that even at the age of nine she knew how to work the camera. Bee Wilson celebrates the woman who set a new standard for style


Bee Wilson
Friday 19 June 2015 14.30 BST

Audrey Hepburn by Philippe Halsman for the cover of Life magazine, 18 July 1955.
Photograph: Philippe Halsman

The greatest film stars inspire certain labels that stick to them as surely and superficially as school nicknames. Marlon Brando is always a “screen legend”. Lauren Bacall is a “siren” and Montgomery Clift, a “heart-throb”. As for Audrey Hepburn, she was, and is, “iconic”: occasionally, an “icon of elegance”, sometimes a “style icon”, but mostly, just plain “icon”.