We all know her as the breakout star in Roman Holiday, her first big role that won for her an Oscar Best Actress. From then on, she was on a roll, starring in a string of iconic films from Sabrina and My Fair Lady to Funny Face and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, until she abruptly left the scene, albeit temporarily, to raise a family. The Hollywood icon may have passed on in 1993, but her legend lives on. But what was she like in private? Intimate Audrey, an ongoing exhibit at S Maison that doubles as a tribute to the late actress, provides us with an idea.
Text and photos by Alex Y. Vergara
Unlike countless fashionistas and cinephiles, Carmina Sanchez Jacob was no Audrey Hepburn fan. Yet, there was something in Intimate Audrey, an exhibit that doubled as an homage to the late actress, Hollywood icon and humanitarian, that resonated with her when she first stumbled upon it several years ago in a museum in Amsterdam.
Not only did she find it quite fresh and authentic. The exhibit, which featured never-before-seen facets of the actress like unpublished photos, letters she received from other famous people, awards and clothes, including the surprisingly austere wedding dress she wore when she married actor Mel Ferrer and the baptismal gown one of her sons wore, was far removed from the Audrey the world at large knew, or thought they knew.
“Of course, I admire Audrey,” said Carmina. “A lot of people do. But I was never a fan. But as I was going through the exhibit, I likened the experience to stumbling upon an Instagram account that’s interesting. During their time, they didn’t have social media, but the exhibition felt like one. Because you see stuff Audrey probably would have wanted to put out there in the world as part of who she was, which is so different from the Audrey we all know as a celebrity.”
Son’s tribute to his mother
It didn’t take long for Carmina, an entrepreneur and intrepid fashion mover responsible for connecting some of the country’s best designers and their works with the European and Middle Eastern markets, to find out what the exhibit was all about. On the surface, it was spearheaded by Audrey’s son Sean Hepburn Ferrer as a tribute to his mother on her 90th birth anniversary in 2019. (Audrey died in 1993 from a rare form of stomach cancer). Prior to its debut in Amsterdam, Intimate Audrey was first unveiled in Brussels, Belgium, Audrey’s place of birth.
Fast forward to 2023. Thanks to Carmina’s efforts, and with Sean’s blessings, the same exhibit has been restaged in Manila and will run until the end of October at S Maison at Conrad Manila. In effect, Manila isn’t only the first city outside Europe, but also the first city in Asia to showcase the tribute to Audrey.
“An American friend told me in amazement that no city even in the US has mounted the exhibit,” Carmina said. “This is an ideal chance not only for Filipinos, but also for Audrey’s fans in the region to see the exhibit firsthand by flying to Manila.”
Carmina and her collaborators, upon Sean’s request, also hired the same architect behind Intimate Audrey’s Brussels and Amsterdam editions, Italian Giovanni Cerea and his wife Sylvia, to design and oversee the construction of the exhibit venue. The pair turned a vacant space in the upscale mall into a black-and-white canvas that’s made more dramatic, thanks to strategic lighting.
“Giovanni, who’s also known for designing the stores of several high-end fashion brands, said that among the three spaces he designed, the one in Manila is his favorite,” Carmina disclosed. “The exhibition’s flow, he said, is more fluid. Apart from the higher ceiling, it also has a bigger space, giving visitors more room to move around in.”
Tiffany blue, the signature color of the high-end jewelry brand Audrey helped make famous in her classic film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, wasn’t even considered. “Black and white were Audrey’s favorite colors,” said Sylvia. “They also best highlight intimate parts of her life away from the public eye. Not pink or any of the iconic and brilliant colors. Not even Tiffany blue.”
Same exhibit but with a difference
But what really sets the Manila show apart from its two earlier iterations is the addition of a designers’ hall wherein some of the country’s biggest fashion designers – from the late Ramon Valera, Salvacion Lim Higgins and Auggie Cordero to JC Buendia, Randy Ortiz, Dennis Lustico, Ivar Aseron, Joey Samson, Philip Rodriguez, Cary Santiago, Jun Escario and Puey Quiñones, to name a few – display their respective creations inspired by dresses Audrey once wore on the silver screen and the red carpet.
Several dresses, particularly those made by Cordero, Valera, Higgins and the ailing Frederick Peralta, were sourced from the designers’ respective archives. But majority of the pieces are new and were made specially for the exhibit. To further put the clothes into context, a picture of Audrey wearing a dress providing the inspiration or reference behind the look is placed alongside each designer’s tribute piece.
After Carmina decided to bring the exhibit to Manila soon after she saw it in Amsterdam, she sent Sean a “cold email” telling him of her plans. To her surprise, Sean responded. Overtime, the two became friends, exchanging emails and even calling each other. When Taal Volcano erupted in early 2020, for instance, Sean immediately called Carmina asking her if she and her family were safe.
The two first set their sights on launching Intimate Audrey in October 2020. This, of course, never came to fruition because the world by then was already deep into the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I first told Sean of my plan to add a tribute to Audrey by our local designers, his main concern was if they were willing to participate,” said Carmina. “I assured him that they would love to be part of it. For one, many of them are huge Audrey fans.”
Sean, Carmina added, didn’t set too many conditions. Apart from asking Carmina to hire Giovanni, Sean also requested that they donate to the Born in Brussels Foundation, which also runs the Audrey Hepburn Foundation. They also had to raise funds to pay for shipping and mounting the exhibit, as well as to fly everyone involved from various parts of Europe to Manila.
“SM Supermalls and S Maison have been our most important partners,” she said. “We are still raising part of the money.”
For his part, Sean, a first-time visitor to Manila, together with his daughter Emma, has been receptive to Carmina’s plans since Day One. “I’m here today thanks to the passion of one woman – Carmina,” he said. “During one of our conversations in the middle of the pandemic, she asked me if I would reconsider [mounting the exhibit in Manila] when things come back [to normal]. I said, of course.”
Despite the interest generated by Intimate Audrey, Sean remains quite selective with whom to say yes to. He doesn’t envision the exhibit, especially one that reveals facets of his mother’s private life, as a traveling show that would go from one city to another at the end of a fixed schedule. He did acknowledge though that Audrey’s life needs to be shared with the world: “If Diana was the ‘People’s Princess,’ my mother was the ‘Cinderella of the people’ because of where she came from and how she survived and emerged from the ashes of the war.”
Alternative venue
He and Carmina and their collaborators only had three weeks to turn an empty space at S Maison into a decent exhibition’s venue after their talks with a museum in Manila didn’t work out at the last minute. Not only were they pressed for time, they also lost a number of sponsors because of the other party’s failure to “respect the contract,” Sean revealed.
A true gentleman of the old school, Sean declined to reveal the identity of their former partner. SM eventually saved the day by coming to their rescue. Despite all the trouble, Sean said that he’s extremely happy with the results.
“Compared to the two previous installations we’ve done, this one feels more organic. But we are using the same graphics, the same colors and featuring the same items we exhibited in Brussels and Amsterdam. If you didn’t know you’re in Manila, you could walk through the exhibit and think that you are somewhere else,” he said.
As a mother, Audrey, according to Sean, was “wonderful.” A fairly decent cook and homemaker, she abruptly stopped working when Sean turned six to spend more time with him and his schooling. She returned in front of the cameras when her firstborn turned 14.
When they were a bit older, Audrey always tried to read their emotions and listened to their points of view before trusting them to make their own decisions. “She’d always say, ‘This is what I would do. It’s your choice. You decide, but this is what I recommend you should do.’ It was never ‘you have to do this or that.’”
The main takeaway Sean wants visitors to remember as they leave the venue is how “humble and normal” his mom was. That there is more to Audrey Hepburn than just the star and Hollywood icon. She was a typical “mom, working woman, cook, homemaker, flower arranger,” and, later in life, a humanitarian.
You can be the biggest star of the past century and be permanently viral, as most celebrities now strive to be. During Audrey’s time, said Sean, “luxury to her was a hot bath with three drops of wonderful essential oils and a homemade soup. Today, luxury has to involve yachts, private jets, sportscars and handbags that cost thousands of dollars.”
Her public image, which continues to captivate countless people to this day, may have immortalized her as the perennial “it girl” of fashion and luxury. But, as Intimate Audrey has shown, nothing could be further from the truth.
Intimate Audrey, which is ongoing until Oct. 29 at S Maison, is open every day during mall hours. Tickets are priced at P850 per head, with special groups like students, senior citizens, national athletes and persons with disabilities enjoying a special rate of P450 per head.
