speculation on the new owner of the Little Black Dress

The identity of the winner of the Christie's auction still hasn't been revealed, and speculation is rife over who could have possibly won the dress. While a non-famous person won the famous Ascot dress from My Fair Lady a few years ago, everyone seems convinced that only a well-known European could have won the dress. The only information Christie's will release about the telephone bidder is that they were European, not even giving a sex to the winner. Daily India seems pretty convinced that one of two famous footballer wives has won the dress; either Victoria Beckham or Coleen McLoughlin. While Victoria's publicist says they have no idea whether she was involved in the bidding, that hasn't stopped people from guessing her to be the lucky winner. And they also believe that she would have the nerve to wear the dress, too! At 24" (61cm), the waist of the dress is a little more accomodating than Audrey's earlier measurements of 20" (50.8cm), but people are still incredulous anyone could fit in that dress. Seems to me too many people have been wearing it! It was even being worn by a model during the bidding (see below).



Thanks yet again to the lovely Lotta, there is some video of the auction to share with you. This clip from the BBC was filmed live during the bidding, and it is actually very exciting to see. You can feel the tension in the room once bidding got to £350,000. If you'd like to see more videos about the auction, or videos from before the auction, simply go here. There are some great, informational newsclips there for you.

Next up is a really fantastic article on the City of Joy charity, the recipients of the £410,000 the dress raked up. Apparently Dominique Lapierre, the founder of City of Joy, is one of the nicest, most kind human beings you could ever find, and if Audrey were around for this auction today she couldn't be prouder of how things turned out.

Last up for tonight is a great article about the Holy Three of women's fashion: Grace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn. Each woman fit a different niche in the fashion world, and none of them can be replaced or replicated. All in all a really great article, and it nicely points out the difference between fashion icon and trendsetter. Read more here.

Audrey is not Posh; an Audrey group worth visiting

I found a hilarious article about Victoria Beckham (formerly Posh Spice) today. She apparently has a new book out on style, and she keeps insisting that Audrey Hepburn is her biggest fashion inspiration. I must admit that I don't know a lot about Victoria, since I don't read tabloids (UK or otherwise) and I've always made it a point to ignore prefab bands, even when my sister and ex-boyfriend were so into the Spice Girls. The only things I do know about her is: she was the worst singer of the Spice Girls, to me; she's had her breasts done and they look like halved grapefruits; and she should be a fashion idol to no one. But back on topic, the reviewer in this article is a UKer and no fan of Victoria, as evinced by this excerpt:

Givenchy once designed a whole collection with her in mind. What Audrey Hepburn never did was show off her surgically enhanced cleavage, diet obsessively, attach waist-length copper and blonde hair extensions to her own Barnet or have her skin sprayed orange. As far as I know Hepburn never wore hot pants with thigh boots and a trucker cap. Or a cowboy hat with oversized, mirrored Aviators. So, stylistically speaking, she was the very antithesis of everything Victoria Beckham stands for.

And another one that made me giggle, mainly because I'd just seen À Bout de Souffle:

At one point - and this really made me gag - Victoria writes about “flats with slim cigarette trousers” being “very Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face or Jean Seberg in A Bout de Souffle.” A Bout de Souffle? Are you referring to the cutting-edge, Goddard-directed, Truffaut-scripted tranche of French ‘new wave’ cinema made back in 1960, by any chance Ms Beckham? The film that pioneered jarring, porno movie-style jump-edits, wantonly inaudible dialogue and highly influential, brutalist black and white style? That A Bout De Souffle?

Especially because Jean wears more dresses than trousers in that film. Still, I'll leave the snide comments about Victoria's ignorance of all things style to the book review, which you can find here. The book in question is called That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels, and Everything In Between, and will be released in the UK on October 27th. Here's the cover, if you're interested:



Is it just me, or does she look intensely uncomfortable and awkward in that picture?

Next up is a new Audrey community on Yahoo. If you've been around a while you might have been in a few Audrey groups on Yahoo, but they usually fade off and die away. This one still has a small membership, but has regular postings and has a really nice and diverse group of people on it. It's called the Audrey Hepburn Circle, and right now the hot topic is on the two new books (Donald Spoto's Enchantment and The Audrey Hepburn Treasures), and whether or not that whole Anderson affair actually happened. If you're in the mood to talk Audrey, then you should definitely check out this group! (I also love the current group profile picture) I've added them to my links page, as well as a link to Google Books, which I kept forgetting about.