Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s Gown Fetches Big Bucks
Posted December 6, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a classic movie moment: Audrey Hepburn as socialite Holly Golightly emerges from a cab on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue to enjoy her pastry-and-coffee breakfast while admiring the jewels on display at Tiffany’s.
On Tuesday, the classic black gown she was wearing in that scene from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, designed by Hubert de Givenchy, sold at auction for more than Cdn$1 million.
A telephone bidder bought the garment for nearly six times what it was expected to sell for – instead of the 50,000 to 70,000 pounds experts thought it would bring in, the successful bid was 410,000. The final sale price, including the buyer’s premium, ended up being 467,200 pounds at the sale of film and TV memorabilia at Christie’s auction house in London.
The dress had been given by designer Givenchy to the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India’s poor. The charity was incredulous at the price the gown went for.
“I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools,” said one of the sellers, Dominic Lapierre.
Holly Golightly was one of Hepburn’s most famous roles – the 1961 film was based on Truman Capote’s novella of the same name.
The Parisian couturier considered the Oscar-winning actress his muse – designing her wardrobe for several films including Sabrina and Funny Face. He also designed for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Grace of Monaco.
Hepburn starred in more than 20 films before becoming a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF – she died at age 63 in 1993.
