Movie legend, style icon and ultimate role model; the life and times of Audrey Hepburn piques public interest more than most – the nostalgia and history surrounding her wardrobe, personal life, filmography and romances included. Millions know the Breakfast At Tiffany’s clichés, yet there are some lesser told fashion tales worth noting: one of them being the wedding dress she planned, never wore, and what happened next.
Pictures of the actress as a bride are familiar across the globe, yet few will notice it is in just one that she appears alone. A portrait taken in 1952 wearing a gown that never made it to the aisle, when the 23-year-old actress’s wedding to businessman James Hanson was suddenly called off. The couple got engaged while she was filming Roman Holiday, for which later she won an Oscar. In personal letters to a friend that have transpired and been auctioned since, Hepburn shared how she was so focussed on wedding planning that she interrupting rehearsals in order to attend dress fittings.
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The design in question was created by the Fontana sisters, who at the time ran one of the most renowned ateliers in Rome. It was there where they created the off-white satin gown with a bateau neckline, French sleeves and buttoned back, a famous silhouette and central character to this story. Until, that is – “It is with a heavy heart I am writing to tell you James Hanson and I are no longer engaged”, wrote the actress in a letter at the time. “I know there is little I need explain to you, a gentleman of this profession. For a year I thought it possible to make our combined lives and careers work out… It has been a very difficult one, but I am sure it is the most sensible decision.” In separate, later interviews, the star elaborated, “My schedule commits me to a movie here, then back to the stage, then back to Hollywood. [James] would be spending most of his time taking care of business in England and Canada. It would be very difficult for us to lead a normal married life.”
Although the romance between Hepburn and Hanson was over, the gown designed by the Fontana sisters survived, and Hepburn made a request to the atelier just after announcing the wedding cancellation: that the dress be donated to a worthy young bride. It went to Amabile Altobello, a young Italian woman from Borgo Carso in the Province of Latina.
In a story that only came to light in Roman newspaper Il Messaggero in 2002, Altobello participated in a radio contest celebrated in her town, just a few miles from Rome. She explained to the host that she could not afford to get married to her fiancé due lack of money to organise the wedding. The Fontana sisters, who were listening to the live radio show in their atelier, decided together that she deserved Hepburn’s donated dress.
Almost 60 years later, in 2009, the dress found its final owner after being on display at Kerry Taylor Auctions in London and auctioned along with 50 other pieces. The wedding gown designed at the Atelier Fontana in 1952 sold for over £10,000.
Although her relationship with James Hanson ended, Hepburn’s romances carried on, going on to marry (for the first time) actor Mel Ferrer two years later in a dress by Pierre Balmain, before her nuptials with Italian doctor Andrea Dotti in 1969 – famously in wearing a Givenchy minidress. Each marking a moment in fashion history of its own merit.
