Prior to being discovered in 1951, Audrey was giving 21 performances a week in the West End, bringing home $150 a week, as well as attending ballet classes. In her own words she " worked my [her] ass off." It is thus clear that Hepburn had a formidable work ethic which would be the steady foundation to her career. This was the main reason for Audrey's success.
Today, I drew from her inspiration, and decided to find myself a job.
I've been unemployed now since the beginning of September and, having fully maxxed out my overdraft, have just registered for unemployment benefit at the local dole office. This, may I just add, was the most degrading, and humiliating moment of my life, clearly surpassing any of my drunken antics which include, throwing up in a 5 star hotel, kissing half my work mates at the Christmas party and accidently flashing my DD chest to my friends. Three months is my longest period of unemployment and I must admit, whilst I do miss the sense of freedom and satisfaction one gets from earning one's own money, I have quite enjoyed the life free from responsibility, rent and bills that comes with being a 21 year old layabout still living at home.
Still is taking hand outs what Audrey would have done?
I highly doubt it.
So at the start of my new life, armed only with thirty CV's and an attitude to make Miss Hepburn herself beam with pride, I go on the hunt for a job.
This is not as simple as it sounds. I remember leaving school and walking around my local shopping centre handing out CV's and landing myself a job, without even needing an interview. Back then, before Gordon Brown ruined the economy, companies were crying out for minnimum wage slaves to serve food, wipe tables, advise customers that no they didn't look fat and yes a store card was a good idea. Now of course, in the midst of a recession, even the girl stacking shelves in Tesco, has an MA in physics from Cambridge ( totally true, I swear). All the temporary Christmas staff were hired in August, because this is when Christmas begins now, so it was a case of thrusting and shoving my CV's at various shop assistants hoping that they get back to the person responsible for hiring and firing. I don't hold out much hope for Toys 'R' Us mind, the sales rep didn't even know what a CV was!!
Still... this Audrey Attitude must have worked, because somehow I have landed a job interview in an Italian cafe on friday. Admittedly, a cafe is not somewhere, I'd choose to work, a bookstore, theatre or independant cinema would have been more my cup of tea, but as far as jobs go, there are certainly worse ones on the market.
Of course, when God removes a problem with one hand, he tends to give with the other, and in this instance, the dilemma I am faced with is a fashion one - what do I wear to the interview. A suit would perhaps be too dressy, after all it is only a waitressing job, but at the same time, I get the impression that jeans would also be too casual.
So, on Audrey's advice, which is that simplicity is key and that it is not the quantity of clothes in a wardrobe that matters, but the quality, I decided to have a refreshing though somewhat belated spring clean out of my wardrobe. I waved goodbye to those cheap Primark T-shirts, threw out those tops that are gorgeous but simply too small for me to fit into again and binned the Bohemian gyspy skirt that was the height of fashion on my seventeenth birthday in 2005 at a time when I was young enough not to know better.
Oxfam will be happy when they receive the clothes tomorrow, the cat ( who does have a name) is happy now, because they make a cosy sleeping place, and I am happy because I have somewhere to hang my new jumper ( see link).
The wardrobe itself looks sad and depleted, of course this will most definately change once I receive my first pay packet.
Speak soon
Annie
xxx
The link by the way is as follows:
http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=true&catalogId=19551&storeId=12556&categoryId=190626&parentcategoryrn=93594&productId=1391375&langId=-1
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Monday, 30 November 2009
Being Audrey...
What Would Audrey Do?
Introduction
Audrey Hepburn was, and still is considered to be one of the most fashionable women of all time. This is not merely opinion. This is a fact.
First discovered in 1952 by William Wyler, she starred in over 20 films, was a mother to two, a fashion icon and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Her life seems to most, almost like a cinderella story, but this was far from the truth. Abandonned by her father as a child, something that would later affect both of her marriages, she grew up under Nazi occupation, suffered from malnourishment throughout her teenage years, survived through two broken marriages and lost a baby.
Despite such difficulties Audrey was always calm and sophisticated. She never shaved her hair off, never left the house without wearing any underwear, and never came rolling out of a club at 5am drunk and disorderly. In fact Audrey refused to live her life in the media and was humble about her hugely successful career once saying "I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not my mind. I just do my own thing."
All in all, not only was this woman beautiful and charitable, but she had an elegance that comes from within, the sort of charm that money could not buy. It was this, and her clear awareness of the world around her that made everyone who met her fall instantly in love.
However, had Hepburn's career taken place in the cut throat world of the 21st century, would her status as a fashion and cinematic idol be as dominant? If you examine some of the famous celebrities in the world today - Victoria Beckham, Katie Price, Paris Hilton - it is clear that neither talents, looks, nor sophistication is a neccessity in order to have a career in the public eye.
This new millenium is an information age. Due to the invention of the internet, alongside the increasing availability of celebrity magazines, such as OK and Heat, giving interviews and creating scandal becomes part of the job description.
Think about this though. In the modern day world, would any-one have noticed a shrinking violet like Audrey??
This is something I have often contemplated. How would some-one with the subtle values of the past fit into the not-so-subtle present day culture? So I though that I ought to do a little investagitive journalism of my own. For the next year of my life I will be living in accordance with the rules and the guidelines that Audrey herself used to do as outlined in Pamela Keogh's What Would Audrey Do?
Follow my successes and my failures througout this year and discover whether Audrey's values still have a place in the modern world? Is there anything that we can learn from Audrey's attitude, or are they simply outdated?
Until tomorrow
Annie Hughes
xxx
Introduction
Audrey Hepburn was, and still is considered to be one of the most fashionable women of all time. This is not merely opinion. This is a fact.
First discovered in 1952 by William Wyler, she starred in over 20 films, was a mother to two, a fashion icon and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Her life seems to most, almost like a cinderella story, but this was far from the truth. Abandonned by her father as a child, something that would later affect both of her marriages, she grew up under Nazi occupation, suffered from malnourishment throughout her teenage years, survived through two broken marriages and lost a baby.
Despite such difficulties Audrey was always calm and sophisticated. She never shaved her hair off, never left the house without wearing any underwear, and never came rolling out of a club at 5am drunk and disorderly. In fact Audrey refused to live her life in the media and was humble about her hugely successful career once saying "I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not my mind. I just do my own thing."
All in all, not only was this woman beautiful and charitable, but she had an elegance that comes from within, the sort of charm that money could not buy. It was this, and her clear awareness of the world around her that made everyone who met her fall instantly in love.
However, had Hepburn's career taken place in the cut throat world of the 21st century, would her status as a fashion and cinematic idol be as dominant? If you examine some of the famous celebrities in the world today - Victoria Beckham, Katie Price, Paris Hilton - it is clear that neither talents, looks, nor sophistication is a neccessity in order to have a career in the public eye.
This new millenium is an information age. Due to the invention of the internet, alongside the increasing availability of celebrity magazines, such as OK and Heat, giving interviews and creating scandal becomes part of the job description.
Think about this though. In the modern day world, would any-one have noticed a shrinking violet like Audrey??
This is something I have often contemplated. How would some-one with the subtle values of the past fit into the not-so-subtle present day culture? So I though that I ought to do a little investagitive journalism of my own. For the next year of my life I will be living in accordance with the rules and the guidelines that Audrey herself used to do as outlined in Pamela Keogh's What Would Audrey Do?
Follow my successes and my failures througout this year and discover whether Audrey's values still have a place in the modern world? Is there anything that we can learn from Audrey's attitude, or are they simply outdated?
Until tomorrow
Annie Hughes
xxx
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