This new book celebrates Audrey Hepburn in Paris

Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy were lifelong friends. Here, she is pictured in the designer’s Parisian atelier in 1956, a few years after she starred in Sabrina. “You conquer the catwalks, the couturiers, the photographers, the unforgettable images of bistros and Parisian counters, but you always remain true to yourself. This naturalness of yours in entering the culture of another while managing to remain totally intact is the most extraordinary thing ,” wrote Giambattista Valli, a fellow designer, in the foreword to Audrey Hepburn in Paris.

“Funny Face was Audrey’s first film musical,” recounts Friedlander. “The original 1927 Broadway stage musical had been composed by Ira and George Gershwin and starred Audrey’s Funny Face costar, Fred Astaire, and his sister, Adele… Before production began in the spring of 1956, Audrey spent two months in Paris studying with Lucien Legrand, the first dancer and choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet. Audrey had studied ballet as a child and danced in stage musicals in London after World War II, but… it had been years since Audrey had attended dance classes… Her long absence from dancing plagued her with self-doubt, but her diligence paid off in the end.”