Book Review: Audrey Hepburn: The Illustrated World of a Fashion Icon by Megan Hess

Earlier this year, I wrote a review of Megan Hess’ Grace Kelly: The Illustrated Wold of a Fashion Icon. You can read that post here. In that post, I mentioned I planned on writing a review about Megan Hess’ book about Audrey Hepburn. I planned to write and publish the post during the summer, but I never got around to it!

Since the Emmys will be this weekend, and Audrey was an Emmy winner, I decided to save the book review post until now!

The book’s synopsis from Amazon is…

Audrey Hepburn: The Illustrated World of a Fashion Icon is a stunning illustrated biography of legendary fashion icon and actress Audrey Hepburn from internationally renowned fashion illustrator Megan Hess.

Discover the key moments of Hepburn’s fascinating life and the iconic looks she pioneered. From Sabrina to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hepburn is renowned for her acting skill and fashion style, but less well known is her life in Nazi-occupied Holland or her tireless dedication to helping those less fortunate than herself. Elegantly enclosed by a hardback cover and ribbon, Megan’s beautiful illustrations follow Hepburn through three distinct chapters: her early life in World War II Europe, dreaming of becoming a ballerina; her ingénue years as the rising star of Hollywood and her incredible fashion partnership with Hubert de Givenchy; and her private life beyond the silver screen, building a legacy through her humanitarian work.

Audrey Hepburn is a celebration of a woman whose life was as remarkable as the clothes she wore and the movies she starred in, brought to life on the page by the expert hand of Megan Hess.

 

This is what the front cover and front pages of the book looks like…

 

Like with the Grace Kelly book, the book is divided into three sections…

The section are called The Woman, The Work, and The Legacy. The Woman covers Audrey’s early life until she becomes an actress. The Work covers Audrey’s acting work. The Legacy talks about her death and the legacy she left behind.

Each page is covered with beautiful illustrations by Megan Hess. The main color used throughout the book is Tiffany blue, inspired by Audrey’s role in the iconic movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s…

 

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this book. The art is beautiful and describes the written text very well. The written portion of the book is not written in rhymes like the children’s books by Megan. It describes Audrey Hepburn’s life from birth to death in a gentle way that isn’t overbearing or condescending. The pacing is really good as well. It isn’t very fast, but it isn’t slow either. It contained facts about Audrey’s life but doesn’t go as deep into them like a full biography would. I really liked the way the book dealt with serious events in her life such as her divorces and the cancer that took her life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Megan Hess’ books and illustration art. I also recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Audrey Hepburn and fashion books. It is a great coffee table book that all ages would enjoy. It would also be a great book for young fans of fashion who want a coffee table book to put out on display but want to read it as well.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!