Icons of style

NEW YORK

In an age when the word is grossly overused, they remain, incontrovertibly, icons: elegance embodied, high fashion at the dawn of the television era, with charmed lives and striking beauty.

Celebrities fuel fashion — that comes as no surprise. However, the women with the most influence over today’s tastemakers aren’t the ones on the covers of all those celebrity magazines.

Instead, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis continue to set the standard. Their names are shorthand for the looks that are at the root of modern style many years after their deaths.

The patrician style of Main Line Philadelphia is defined by Princess Grace. One of the world’s most coveted handbags — the Hermes Kelly bag — is named after her, and that two-handled satchel has become a symbol of understated, ladylike luxury.

When Mrs. Onassis was a Kennedy, she popularized the pillbox hat and skirt suits. When she was an Onassis, it was glamorous oversized dark sunglasses worn with yacht-appropriate attire.

The pearls and black dress that many women use as their cocktail-party uniform is all Audrey Hepburn. The Givenchy black dress she wore in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” a simple yet elegant sleeveless sheath, was sold recently at Christie’s in London, fetching a shocking $807,000, almost six times the highest pre-sale estimate. Proceeds will go to the Indian relief charity City of Joy Aid.

Designer Hubert de Givenchy donated the dress, which he created. Then the company that bears his name, now a division of LVMH, repurchased it to support both the charity and the heritage of the brand.

The film series Grand Classics, in conjunction with American Express Red, polled fashion designers earlier this year about the most influential fashion movies, and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was the No. 1 choice. “My Fair Lady,” also starring Miss Hepburn, was in the top 10.

“Audrey had a timeless quality,” says Avril Graham, executive fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, which re-created Miss Hepburn’s look — pearls and all — on young actress Natalie Portman for a recent cover. “Anyone could wear that black dress now. It doesn’t seem to be dated in any way.”

“Timeless” is the word that comes up again and again with designers, editors and fashion watchers when they talk about these women — and they talk about them a lot.

“They are the triumvirate,” designer Michael Kors declares. “All three of these women were about clean, sharp lines so you notice the woman first. And they’re very archetypal types: If you’re fine-boned, you see Audrey Hepburn and say, ‘That works for me.’ If you’re sporty and angular, you see yourself in Jackie Kennedy; and for patrician and classic, you automatically think of Grace Kelly.”

Fame, especially with the growth of television in the 1950s and 1960s, allowed Princess Grace, Mrs. Onassis and Miss Hepburn to have a worldwide audience, and they all made fashion approachable, so it didn’t seem like an only-for-insiders pursuit, Mr. Kors adds.

It’s also worth noting, says Tommy Hilfiger, that even though European designers get credit for setting fashion trends, Mrs. Onassis and Princess Grace were American. Miss Hepburn, with roots in Belgium, Holland and England, moved to the United States to advance her career.

Of course, the three were the closest America had to royalty. Grace Kelly, already the toast of Hollywood, became a real-life princess when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco; Mrs. Onassis was the face of the country’s most famous family; and Miss Hepburn modernized the Cinderella story as both Eliza Doolittle and Sabrina on the silver screen.

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