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Iconic look: Audrey Hepburn's wedding dress by Pierre Balmain, 1954
"When you see her wedding dress, you will see it's a simple little white dress." — Sean Hepburn Ferrer, her son
25 September 1954. Bürgenstock, Switzerland.
Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer in a simple, tea-length white dress by Pierre Balmain, with a high collar, three-quarter balloon sleeves and a crown of white flowers instead of a veil.
The wedding
Early in 1954, Audrey Hepburn and the American actor Mel Ferrer starred together on Broadway in Ondine (play, 1938) by the French writer Jean Giraudoux. That autumn, they married in Switzerland.
She wanted no press. "We want to keep it a dark secret in order to have it without the 'press,'" she wrote to her friend, the English actor Sir Felix Aylmer.
First came a short civil ceremony in Buochs. Then, on 25 September 1954, they were married in the small chapel of Bürgenstock, above Lake Lucerne.
Afterward, as she wrote, there would be "a gathering in our chalet of our nearest and dearest!"
Fourteen years later, in 1968, the couple divorced.
The dress
The dress was white and tea-length, with a high collar close to the neck. The balloon sleeves stopped at three-quarter length. The skirt flared out from a cinched waist.
A satin sash was tied in a big bow at the back.
It was designed by the French couturier Pierre Balmain. Yet it was so simple that her son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, later said it "was probably something off the rack."
"When you see her wedding dress, you will see it's a simple little white dress," he said.
The accessories
Instead of a veil, she wore a crown of white flowers in her short hair.
She added long white gloves above the elbow, tucked into the sleeves. In many photos, this makes the sleeves look full length. In the photo below, taken while she made a phone call, she wore no gloves. The true length of the sleeves can be seen.
Her other wedding dresses
The dress she never wore, 1952
In December 1951, Audrey Hepburn's engagement to the English businessman James Hanson was announced. The wedding was planned for 1952.
While she was filming Roman Holiday (film, 1953) in Rome, she ordered her wedding dress from Sorelle Fontana. This Italian couture house was run by three sisters. In 1949, they had made the dress for Linda Christian's wedding to Tyrone Power.
The dress was made of ivory silk satin, with a boat neckline and long sleeves.
But she called off the wedding. She asked the sisters to give the dress to "the most beautiful, poor Italian girl you can find – someone who couldn't ever afford a dress like mine."
It went to Amabile Altobella, a farm girl, who wore it at her own wedding. "I have had a happy marriage, so the dress brought me luck," she said.
In 2009, the dress was sold at auction for about $23,000.
The wedding dress on screen, 1957
Audrey Hepburn wore several wedding dresses on screen. The most famous is perhaps the one she wore as Jo Stockton in Funny Face (film, 1957). It was by Hubert de Givenchy, who designed her character's wardrobe for the film.
The dress was tea-length, with a full skirt that started at the hips, a dropped waist and a fitted bodice with a straight neckline. A short veil fell behind her shoulders.
With it, she looked like a ballerina.
The pink wedding dress, 1969
On 18 January 1969, Audrey Hepburn married the Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in a small town hall ceremony in Morges, Switzerland.
This time, the dress was by Hubert de Givenchy: a pale pink minidress with long sleeves and a wide funnel neck. She wore it with a matching headscarf, white tights and ballet flats.
They divorced in 1982.
Two marriages. Three husbands-to-be. Four wedding dresses: one she wore on screen, and three she wore, or planned to wear, for her own weddings. Each told a different story, happy and sad.