Delicate and graceful, people remember Audrey Hepburn as a silver screen ingenue. But Audrey’s life is one full of compassion, willing poured out from a full heart. One cannot admire the beauty of her face without also knowing the deeper beauty of her heart.
Audrey was born to Dutch nobility in the city of Brussels, Belgium. Her life could have been charmed. She studied ballet at prestigious academies and received the best schooling. But the family found themselves caught in the Netherlands during the Nazi invasion of 1940. Young Audrey witnessed first hand what atrocities the Nazis were capable of. Her uncle was executed and her brothers sent to labour camps. The family, like the rest of the Netherlands, starved during 1944 resulting in a lifelong physical delicacy and destroying her dreams to become a prima ballerina.
Instead of hardening her, the horror of the invasion moved her to action. She performed in underground concerts to raise money for the Dutch Resistance, dancing silently. After the war she moved to the United Kingdom and became an actress. She soon became the darling of post-war cinema, starring in 27 films over the course of her career.
But the most important work of her life was with UNICEF. In 1950 she began to record the stories of children who, like her, grew up in hardship during the war. By 1989 she had been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador, working to draw attention to the suffering of children around the world. With cameras recording for the world to see, she toured areas of famine and warfare. She raised her voice, so that everyone who loved that silver-screen girl would see at last to the starving and lost. She made the world listen.
Audrey could have left the horrors of war behind her and let her beauty carry her. Instead, the great compassion of her heart drove her to work so that no child would suffer as she had. She worked tirelessly in her later years to bring hope. Her greatest power was the power of her compassion.
What Would Audrey Wear?
A powerful woman with a kind heard and a relentless need to help deserves something soft and lovely. If we could give Audrey a gift from our collection it would be Dreamer Set. Its soft embracing folds could bring comfort to her after long days working to protect those who need it most.
