At KOTUR, as keen followers of Oscar Wilde’s brilliant quote, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken,” we are always huge admirers of women who have forged their own way through life. Hepburn survived a childhood in war-torn Holland before starting out as a ballerina in London. She went on to become one of the most famous actresses Hollywood ever produced, only to turn her back on it pretty conclusively for a life as a mother and humanitarian. And she did it all inimitably and unforgettably her way. Whether you look at her career or her fashion choices, the ones she made were distinctly hers and hers alone. It is this strength of character that makes her such an indelible person in all of our minds. It doesn’t matter which era you look at her from – or in – Audrey Hepburn always seems somehow the same.

The opportunity to look at just such images has come about again with the launch at the National Portrait Gallery in London of a new exhibition, Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon. What makes this show so special are the many previously unseen portraits being shown alongside the well known taken by Irving Penn, Norman Parkinson and Cecil Beaton. Featuring a large collection of photographs from her sons’ private collections for the first time, this exhibition shows Hepburn the star as well as Hepburn the person. You will find photographs of her dancing as a teenager, or clutching a bunch of flowers as a young girl, her behind the scenes and off duty, not being ‘Audrey Hepburn’ but simply being herself. What’s truly striking, however, is how little difference there is between the two. As this exhibition shows, the essence of what was so attractive about her – her steady, honest gaze, her unique look, her entirely unpretentious sense of style – shone through no matter what the circumstances or time of her life she found herself in. On such things is true beauty built. Hepburn more than proves it.

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon is on at London’s National Portrait Gallery from July 2^nd 2015

Photo courtesy of Norman Parkinson Archive, Jack Cardiff, The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive, Douglas Kirkland, Robert Walders, National Portrait Gallery

Chanel HQ has kept their founder’s apartment exactly as it was when she died in 1971 – save for a couple of key additions: a silk chaise she was famously photographed in by Horst, and a simple, leather covered chair that she conducted her fittings from. Every morning, she would depart from the Ritz for the short walk ‘home,’ leaving just enough time for the door porter at the hotel to call ahead to the store, giving them notice to spritz Rue Cambon’s famous mirror panelled spiral staircase with Chanel No 5 before the boss arrived. Her private rooms were a mixture of Oriental and French chic – full of modern artifacts and vintage chinese screens, ahead of their time touches and 18th century antiques. Stylish to a T, like the lady herself.

Incredibly valuable Chinese screens adorn the walls of the living and dining areas, hiding the doors she was said not to like. Many featured camellias, Coco’s favourite flower that she made a Chanel motif.  In the main living room, a custom made sofa in suede was an extremely modern addition to a 1930′s apartment. On it, Mademoiselle Chanel scattered quilted suede cushions – a precursor of her iconic quilted bags to come in 1955. Dripping in crystals, the room is also reflective of her superstitious spirit. Coco was convinced of crystal’s healing powers – hence the crystal balls she collected and specially commissioned crystal Chandelier featuring arms made out of her signature Number 5s (legend has it, it was a fortune teller who told her it was to be her lucky number.) She also collected lions, in deference to her Leo starsign, littering the apartment with gold statuettes featuring the big cats.

Mademoiselle’s apartment was designed as part of the store – private, for sure, but positioned so she knew what was always going on. The signature sweeping spiral staircase stretching above and below allowed for her to stand out of sight and still view customers reactions to her collections down below, the mirrored walls gave an art deco elegance to the atelier that almost can’t be beaten. It was Chanel herself who said “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” As it turns out, it was a motto she literally lived by.

Where others such as Picasso supposedly failed in getting Chanel to sit for them, Pike, a Californian artist, succeeded, painting the designer in her studio in a series of portraits between 1967 and 1971. The two ladies met whilst Pike was spending time in Paris in the 1960s and formed a friendship, corresponding regularly. Pike was known to wear Chanel when she wasn’t working, too – surely a perk of the job. The resulting images are not only beautiful but give a window into who the woman was - in that way that only portraiture can, they present Chanel as less of a personality, more of a person. We can’t wait to see it.

Coco Chanel: a New Portrait by Marion Pike Paris 1967-71 is at the Fashion Space Gallery, London 05 September 2013 – 16 November 2013

http://www.fashionspacegallery.com