Shoes on Screen: Audrey's Favourite Accessory

“If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?”, was a question posed to Audrey Hepburn in 1987.

“I’d like to have had smaller feet”, was her unanticipated reply.

“I hate having big feet”, she continued with a smile, “and all my friends have such pretty feet and wear such pretty shoes. I remember years ago my mother told me I looked like Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girlfriend, with thin legs and big feet.”

It was for this reason that a style often associated with Audrey came to be. As a way of not drawing attention to her perceived “flaw”, whilst also downplaying another of her insecurities, her height, Audrey opted for the style and comfort of low shoes in the time of the stiletto’s skyrocketing success.

From my archive we can look at one such pair of these shoes, owned and worn by Audrey Hepburn.