11 December 2009

Wedding dress for sale - with an interesting history


A wedding dress (L) which was created by Fontana sisters for the wedding of actress Audrey Hepburn to James Hanson in 1952, that was subsequently cancelled, is displayed with other dresses worn by Hepburn are displayed at Sotheby's auction house in Paris December 1, 2009.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Other dresses and clothes from the auction are shown here, via BBC, which has some sale prices (including £13,800 for the wedding dress in the photo).

I had originally posted this as a wedding dress that was "never worn," but Julia found this most interesting piece of history:
"The sale’s poignant finale is a wedding dress that was never worn by Hepburn, on- or off-screen. Made by the Roman Fontana sisters in 1952, before she broke off an engagement to an English aristocrat, the budding star characteristically asked the designers to give the dress away to “the most beautiful, poor Italian girl you can find.” Worn by a peasant girl, who became a farmer’s wife, the dress lay wrapped in tissue paper for four decades before being offered for sale, with a piquant image of the elfin Audrey wearing it. "

2 comments:

  1. Actually, the wedding dress has been worn, according to the New York Times:

    "The sale’s poignant finale is a wedding dress that was never worn by Hepburn, on- or off-screen. Made by the Roman Fontana sisters in 1952, before she broke off an engagement to an English aristocrat, the budding star characteristically asked the designers to give the dress away to “the most beautiful, poor Italian girl you can find.” Worn by a peasant girl, who became a farmer’s wife, the dress lay wrapped in tissue paper for four decades before being offered for sale, with a piquant image of the elfin Audrey wearing it. "

    see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/fashion/01iht-faudrey.html

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  2. Post amended. Thank you, Julia - the info makes the whole story better.

    :.)

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