Style Crush - Audrey Hepburn - MY DECORATOR - Helping you achieve your interior designing dreams! Colour consults, interior design.

This is our first ‘Style Crush’ post, so I thought I would write about Audrey Hepburn. These segments are designed to inspire us to look at style icons or muses that we have and delve into why they are such and what we can learn from them and how we could use our discoveries in our interior designing.

Audrey Hepburn is a style icon that has been admired by women the world over for her elegant, classic style. She had a distinct look with her short hair, thick eyebrows and slim build. In 2004 Audrey Hepburn was named the “most beautiful woman of all time” and “most beautiful woman of the 20th century”. Yet, she never saw herself as beautiful or attractive stating in a 1959 interview that “you can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly… you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn’t conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.”

Audrey became Givenchy’s muse. Designing clothing that Hepburn states he “gave me a look, a kind, a silhouette. He has always been the best and he stayed the best. Because he kept the spare style that I love. What is more beautiful than a simple sheath made an extraordinary way in a special fabric, and just two earrings?”

So why is Audrey Hepburn a style icon? What do we admire about her? To me Audrey’s look is simple, understated, elegance. She was always immaculately put together, her clothing was tailored, she didn’t wear layers of jewellery but had a minimalist approach to it. She was the epitome of classic.

I’m now going to change this post up, so stay with me. Lets look at how we can apply this style icon’s look to interior design.

If Audrey is ‘classic’ in style then she can be used as inspiration when creating a classic look interior space. I’m not talking about getting Audrey posters/art and hanging it on our walls here, but delving deep into her ‘look’ and using it with styling decisions.

For example, when choosing a lounge I would go square arm as opposed to rolled arm. I would select tailored curtains that don’t puddle on the floor or are hanging on fancy decorator rods. I would use a black and white colour scheme with touches of neutral or soft pastel colours. Decorator accessories would be carefully curated and kept to a minimum but a beautiful minimum.

So keeping this all in mind what can we learn from Audrey Hepburn if we are wanting to create a classic look in our homes? I would say invest in quality pieces of furniture that have a tailored line to them, decorate minimally but with well chosen items, include soft elements like fur and other textures, add life with vases of classic flowers like roses, metal choices of silver in frames and hardware fittings. And lastly have fun with it add a touch of playful but tasteful elements to your space. Oh so Audrey!