Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' Givenchy Dress

Breakfast on Fifth Avenue

The film opens on Fifth Avenue. A taxi pulls up and Holly Golightly steps out in a long black gown, with pearls, long gloves and a cigarette holder among the accessories that went with it, outside the jewelry store that gives the film its name. She wears the same dress again at a party later in the film.

Paramount made the film for $2.5 million from George Axelrod's adaptation of Truman Capote's novella, turning a darker story into a romantic comedy. Capote had wanted Marilyn Monroe for the lead and was unhappy with the casting. Exteriors were shot on Fifth Avenue starting in October 1960, and the film premiered on October 5, 1961. It grossed $14 million worldwide and won Oscars for Henry Mancini's score and for 'Moon River,' written with Johnny Mercer. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress.

Givenchy and Hepburn

Hepburn, born in Brussels on May 4, 1929, had worked with Hubert de Givenchy since 'Sabrina' in 1954, and the partnership shaped her public image for the rest of her career.

For 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' Givenchy designed a sleeveless, floor-length sheath in black Italian satin with a fitted bodice and a cut-out back. It was finished with a pearl choker, long black gloves, a cigarette holder and an oversized black hat. The first versions showed too much leg for the studio, so costume designer Edith Head reworked the lower half of the skirt.

Three versions are known to survive. Givenchy kept the original, hand-stitched dress in the fashion house's archive. A second is in the Museo del Traje, the costume museum in Madrid. The third is the one that came to auction.

Bricks and cement

Givenchy gave the dress to the French writer Dominique Lapierre and his wife to raise money for City of Joy Aid, their charity for the poor in India. In November 2006, before the sale, Natalie Portman wore it for a magazine cover.

It was offered in London on December 5, 2006, with an estimate of GBP 50,000 to 70,000. Bidding ran far past that, and an anonymous buyer on the telephone won it for GBP 467,200, about $923,187. It was the highest price yet paid for a dress made for a film, beating the GBP 140,000 paid in 2005 for Dorothy's blue gingham dress from 'The Wizard of Oz.' A same-day U.S. report gave the price as $807,000 against an estimate it put at $98,000 to $138,000, figures that do not match the London results reported elsewhere.

Lapierre said he was dumbfounded that a piece of cloth that belonged to such a magical actress would let him buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools. The money went toward schools for poor children in Kolkata.

The little black dress

The gown has been called the most famous little black dress of all time: a plain dark column, accessorized, worn by a star on an empty street.

Hepburn spent much of her later life working for children. She became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1988, saying she was grateful for the international aid she received after living through the German occupation as a child. She died on January 20, 1993, in Tolochenaz, Switzerland, at 63. That one of her most famous costumes ended up paying for children's schools fits the life she chose after film.

The numbers

Film

'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' Paramount, premiered October 5, 1961

Budget and gross

$2.5 million budget; $14 million worldwide

Oscars

Won Best Original Score and Best Original Song ('Moon River'); Hepburn nominated for Best Actress

Material

Black Italian satin, sleeveless floor-length sheath

Known versions

3

Timeline

1. May 4, 1929

   Audrey Hepburn is born in Ixelles, Brussels.

2. 1954

   Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy begin working together on 'Sabrina.'

3. Oct 2, 1960

   Filming of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' begins, with exteriors on Fifth Avenue.

4. Oct 5, 1961

   'Breakfast at Tiffany's' premieres.

5. 1988

   Hepburn becomes a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

6. Jan 20, 1993

   Hepburn dies in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.

7. 2005

   Dorothy's gingham dress from 'The Wizard of Oz' sells for GBP 140,000, then the film-dress benchmark.

8. Nov 2006

   Natalie Portman wears the dress for a magazine cover ahead of the sale.

9. Dec 5, 2006

   The dress sells at auction in London for GBP 467,200 to an anonymous phone bidder, for City of Joy Aid.

The world in 1961

• Jan 20, 1961

  John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as president.

• Mar 1, 1961

  Kennedy creates the Peace Corps.

• Apr 17, 1961

  The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins and fails within days.

• May 4, 1961

  The Freedom Riders begin their interstate bus journeys against segregation.

• May 5, 1961

  Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.

• May 25, 1961

  Kennedy sets the goal of landing a man on the moon before the decade is out.

• Oct 1, 1961

  Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' Givenchy Dress is number 72 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (71 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe, not Audrey Hepburn, to play Holly Golightly.
• The first versions of the dress showed too much leg, so Edith Head reworked the skirt.
• Givenchy kept the original; the auctioned dress is one of three known versions.
• Natalie Portman wore the dress for a magazine cover weeks before it sold.
• The final price was more than nine times the low estimate.
• It beat the previous film-dress record held by Dorothy's gingham dress from 'The Wizard of Oz.'
• Exteriors were shot on Fifth Avenue, but the interiors were filmed at Paramount's studios in Hollywood.