Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a 1961 film, based on the 1958 short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote. The romantic comedy was directed by Blake Edwards, produced by Martin Jurow and released by Paramount Pictures. Audrey Hepburn played the leading role of naive and excitable Holly Golightly and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. It is thought, by many, to be her most memorable and recognisable role; however the actress admitted that she found it very challenging to play the extrovert, Holly Golightly, as the character was so different from her own. The film was very well received by the audience and critics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song, Moon River.
In the film, Holly Golightly was a fun-loving and occasionally scatty young woman who escaped her poor, dysfunctional family to New York city in an attempt to become rich to support her much-loved brother, Fred. Getting ready for one of her many trips to Sing Sing prison, to check the ‘weather report’ from inmate Sally Tomato, she bumps into her new neighbour-tenant, Paul Varja, financially supported by an older woman nicknamed 2E, who instantly becomes intrigued by her. His love for Holly grows throughout the film, however Holly Golightly is on a constant hunt to find the next richest man she can marry as she thinks money will make her wild dreams come true. Paul stays by her side despite her rejecting his declaration of love, making her realise that the happiness of love is so much more rewarding than the happiness of money.
I found it very intriguing and almost comical how Holly’s poise and elegance at her party was replaced by her endearing hectic and scattiness in-between her ‘appearances’. I was drawn in by Holly’s breathtaking beauty and glamorous style from the very first scene where she emerges from a yellow taxi wearing a fitted black dress, pearl necklace, polished up-do and oversized sunglasses and from that point I knew she would be a style icon to remember. I love the overall story of the film of a girl who thinks that money will make her happy but learns that love is the real key to happiness because it is a real lesson to be learned in every time period.
I felt that Holly’s former husband, Doc Golightly’s character, could have improved his articulation as I found him difficult to understand completely, which I found frustrating. I also found the ending of the film was quite abrupt and an anticlimax; I felt that maybe clips of their happiness in the near future together could have been shown, with Paul’s possible success with his writing and if Holly ever got a job. I basically felt like the ending wasn't much of a conclusion of the film.
Style influences
I think that the iconic look of Holly in the black Givenchy dress made the film iconic and I think that this whole look started a new style movement.
Beauty bloggers and YouTubers are still, to this day, recreating the Breakfast at Tiffany’s look, showing what an impact it had in the beauty industry. Lisa Eldridge did a recreation of Holly’s look after it was so highly requested by her fans and takes you through a step by step tutorial of how to achieve the 1950/1960s look.
The focus of the makeup look was her eyes; she therefore wore black or brown winged eyeliner and the occasional bit of grey eyeshadow for depth. She also wore very feathery and pretty looking false eyelashes to emphasise her eyes further. All these features would be lighter in the day and more intense in the evening scenes. Her skin was always perfected and porcelain looking, with a pretty pink blush at all times, but never any bronzer, which has become a very popular look in many fashion shows and red carpet looks. Her eyebrows weren’t as intense or black as in her previous films, they were kept more soft looking and lighter in colour, to further emphasise her doe shaped eyes. Audrey’s character, Holly, would never be seen with a glossy lip and would always opt for the matte/satin finish, keeping her look very classy, simple and sophisticated.
Audrey Hepburn really gave the ‘little black dress’ its name after wearing two black dresses in the film over again, but changing the look by adding different accessories and after 50 years it is still a popular staple to have in your wardrobe. She adapted the little black dress for different occasions four times, showing how versatile the dress can be and how it is a staple. Holly did tend to re-wear her different pieces of clothing,which would have made sense since she was struggling with money at the time, but she managed to make each outfit look different with her clever use of accessories to either dress up or dress down an outfit or to simply change the look all together, emphasising the power of accessories and giving them their own importance. Some of the most iconic accessories from the film would have to be the necklace of strands of pearls, the long black gloves, the oversized sunglasses and the jewels in her hair.
The bold and oversized sunglasses worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film were by Oliver Goldsmith and were called ‘The Manhattan’ and for the Breakfast in Tiffany’s fiftieth anniversary this famous style of sunglasses was re-launched in celebration, emphasising again how the fashion from the film still influences the fashion of today.
Another accessory, and some say the most iconic accessory of the film, was her character defining prop, the cigarette holder. This was very glamorous in the 1950s and so would have portrayed a wealthy and elegant image. An advertisement has recently been created to advertise E-cigarettes with a look-a-like of Audrey Hepburn’s character, Holly Golightly, to try to bring back this glamour associated with smoking.
Another piece of clothing that made a statement and is still very popular today is the trench coat, which she wore in the last few scenes with Paul. Trench coats are always being seen on high fashion catwalks and they are also a high street favourite. This again highlights how iconic the character’s style was.
Givenchy was already a highly respected fashion designer in Europe, however his designs for the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, particularly the little black dress, propelled him into the high fashion world in America and Hollywood. Givenchy was the first high fashion designer to get into costume design in film, having previously worked with Audrey Hepburn in films ‘Sabrina’ and ‘Funny Face’ and the both became very good friends.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s made Audrey Hepburn a fashion/style icon in her own right. Her look in the opening scene with her little black dress and bold accessories can be recognised all over the world and a photo of her in that ensemble instantly make people think of the film. The propelled Audrey into the limelight and through that she really made a name for herself, going on to star in many other famous films, such as My Fair Lady and How to Steal a Million.
Makeup Department
Nellie Manley - hair style supervisor
Wally Westmore - makeup supervisor
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Hubert de Givenchy - principal wardrobe: Miss Hepburn
Edith Head - costume supervisor
Pauline Trigere - principal wardrobe: Miss Neal
Joan Joseff - costume jeweller (uncredited)
The makeup and costume departments in Breakfast in Tiffany’s looks like it is a lot smaller than in the Great Gatsby; however I don't know whether this is down to not all the staff being listed or whether smaller groups of people were needed.
I think the Breakfast at Tiffany’s film was iconic in terms of fashion and style because the image of Audrey Hepburn styled as Holly Golightly in the black Givenchy dress, bold accessories and her cigarette holder (as shown below) is one of the most recognisable images, worldwide, of all time. The film is so iconic that it was shown, at the beginning of September, on the very first day of the Selfridges new cinema opening in London. Many recreations have been made of this iconic image of Audrey Hepburn, again showing how influential the film’s styling had been, some of which are shown below.
