The cult of Audrey Hepburn.

In an era dominated by the atomic prurience of the bombshells and on the heels of the Forties glamazons, Audrey revolutionized movie glamour with an understated allure that had never been seen on-screen before. Not an actress of the chameleon variety, she relied on innate gifts, undiluted by specific training. She maneuvered sleekly within a narrow range, her fashion-model perfection never completely submerged.

Audrey's unique appearance—the short hair, the slender frame and petite bosom, the long neck, the prominent brow, the strong jawline, and the irregular smile set her apart; the cadence of her voice, with its velvet tones and tip-of-the-tongue enunciation, made for an unmistakable accompaniment that continues to melt hearts. Hepburn as actress and woman seemed an emissary from a finer world than ours. She taught, by example, what a lady was: a vessel of grace and gravity, ready wit, eldritch charm: a woman whose greatest discretion was to hide her awareness of her splendor. She refused to be tyrannized by her own beauty. In the mid 60’s Everything about her appearance at this time said one thing: affluence. Her crisply tailored pantsuits, Louis Vuitton shoulder bags, oversized sunglasses, and a softened modification of Sassoon’s five-point bob became a jet-set staple. Simplicity was her trademark No one has ever worn a white shirt quite as she did. There is modernity about Audrey Hepburn that reaches beyond the time in which her films were made. Her performances, as fresh and delightful as they were when originally released, resonate with contemporary audiences. In the 1950s Audrey filled a place on the popular screen that no one knew was vacant, and when she retired she proved to be irreplaceable. As Billy Wilder said: “God kissed Audrey Hepburn on the cheek, and there she was”, meaning: she was born a star. these are testimony to Hepburn's twin legacies: her eternal, effortless chic in movies and her later, to her more important, a career as an ambassador and consciousness-raiser for UNICEF. She often spoke of her lifelong craving for affection and her need to give it. She knew both privilege and want, as a baroness' daughter who nearly starved in the Netherlands during the German occupation in World War II. You can see why the starving children of Africa and Asia were kin to her.

The photos of Audrey with the Somalian children show a woman nearly as thin as they. It's anorexia as empathy — as if she didn't want to embarrass the starving children she met by looking too well-fed. Maybe one reason she was so lovely was that she didn't think she was.

There is no actress alive who can turn a minute on-screen into a tutorial on poise, spontaneity, comic timing, professionalism, chemistry, and, of course, casual elegance. Today we see Audrey's influence everywhere—on the street, on the red carpet, and in the photoshoots of young Hollywood Audrey Hepburn’s Cinderella tale tells a personal version of happily ever after—the charming girl transformed into the elegant woman who became a legend of grace and compassion. The person behind the icon was the mother of two sons, lived what she believed, and found a sense of serenity, traveling, and serving tirelessly as Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in support of child health, welfare, and education and that is why I aspire to be like her.