Women’s Style Icons

Audrey HepburnHepburn, made famous by appearances in films such as My Fair Lady and The Roman Holiday, had the ability to look stylish no matter whatever the occasion. The diminutive starlet was born in Belgium and fled to England before the outbreak of the war. Audrey Hepburn’s classic 1950s and 1960s looks are everything many women aspire to look like today. Here dresses and penchant for large glasses have made her a glamorous individual that many look up to for style tips. Hepburn is quintessential in women’s fashion and inspired much of the designer Givenchy’s work. She has also been inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of fame and is considered the third greatest female screen legend by the American Film Institute. Hepburn also did a lot of work for UNICEF and has been recognised on numerous occasions for her important role in such work. She died of cancer in 1993, but remains a bastion of female style for the 20th century and this one also. Coco ChanelCoco Chanel is a name ubiquitous with fashion. The game changing fashion designer was born in France at the end of the 19th century and went on to change fashion. Chanel’s input into fashion is so well noticed that she is considered to be among the top 100 most important people of the 20th century.Her subscription to the modernist school of thought and use of men’s styles on women made her stand out among the designers of the day. Chanel grew from small beginnings – her first shop was a small affair in Paris and opened in 1909. Here she catered for many in the Paris area and grew with time, expanding into perfume in the 1920s and hanging around with the movers and shakers of the era.Chanel took notice of everything on her horizons and adapted all sorts of clothes to create and elegant style of her own. Though she immigrated to Switzerland during Nazi occupied France, she came back with her brand and made it stronger than ever. Even in her middle age she had the foresight many half her age could only dream of. Chanel developed one of the world’s most infamous fashion brands and is still revered to this day in women’s fashion. Everyone if fashion still takes so much from Chanel, even shops such as Next and New Look take so much of her inspiration into their designs.Marilyn MunroeThough Munroe is more famous for her extracurricular activities and her death in mysterious surroundings than all else, she is also a infamous style icon of the 20th century.Think of the amount of times you have seen the shot of her white dress blowing up in the film Some Like it Hot, or the amount of times you have witnessed her pouting visage with mole. Marilyn Munroe is as much an icon of style as many others. Here shapely figure is the exact opposite of Hepburn’s. However, the starlet adds as much to women’s fashion in the 20th century as anyone else. Her ImageMarilyn Munroe’s hair and quintessential 1950s image of glamour is one that many in the women’s fashion world still adhere to today. Here blonde curly hair and pouty looks are still as fashionable, or more so than they ever were. Munroe was the epitome of female sexuality and oozed this fire whether in a pair of trousers and a blouse or a corset like dress. This ability to be a creature of sexuality and make women’s fashion something akin to her personality was a huge leap for women in an austere 1950s world. Dresses from Next and New Look will help you capture some of this style and make you feel like Marilyn.