Friday Fame: Katharine Hepburn
While Audrey will always be remembered as the quintessential glamour girl, another Hepburn has a place in my heart as the foremost embodiment of feminism and self-confidence. Kate and Audrey share - to the best of anyone's knowledge - no relation whatsoever, but they both managed to secure a place on the list of fashion and style icons in the golden era of Hollywood; and they both did it simply by being themselves. Some rather coincidental trivia about the two, both Audrey and Kate lost their first Oscars, Audrey to theft and Kate to a hurricane. (Kate was later reunited with hers while Audrey's was lost forever.) They were both successful actresses, both revered for their talents as well as their looks and style, and both staggeringly different from each other.
Born on May 12th (my birthday, too!) in 1907, Kate was the daughter of an heiress and a doctor. She was a sportswoman and an intellectual both on film and stage as well as in her personal life. She had an acerbic wit and a bold, stubborn attitude that, paired with her apparent haughtiness toward the idea of being a celebrity, earned her the nickname Katharine of Arrogance. Despite all that, when it came to her personal life she believed that family and love were of the most important treasures and she protected and adored those close to her with a fierce passion. She seemed to put up a wall to the public eye in the early years of her stardom, but with age she grew more comfortable with the press. And as for her career, it hardly faltered; she was nominated for an astonishing twelve Academy Awards and won four of them.
Kate hated make-up and hardly ever wore dresses yet she still managed to capture and enchant the world with her natural beauty and unstoppable spirit. One of the many things I admire about Kate is the way she carried herself with such a self-assured air. Even in just these pictures you can see the crackling of her confident energy, from the strong way she held her chin to the daring, bold confidence in her eyes. By watching her films you get an even more solid image of the strength and courage she possessed, and the graceful way she translated those qualities to the world through her own style.
What do you think of Katharine Hepburn's style? Are you more of an Audrey, more of a Kate, or do you find yourself admiring the very different qualities of both?
