No 5: Chocolate and New Beginnings

These days, I'm not quite sure how to approach Easter in the public. While it's a holiday that I believe in and celebrate, I'm aware this isn't the case for everyone so I am a bit reluctant to make a sweeping 'happy Easter!' comment. Personally, I blame twitter for this: many of the people I'm following tweeted comments such as 'enjoy your weekend, however you spend it!' or 'happy Easter, if you celebrate it!' which made me wonder about the appropriateness of broad Easter comments in the modern world.

Instead of making this post about Easter specifically (but while I'm on the subject, I hope everyone who celebrated it enjoyed it!), I've decided to focus on two universal topics: chocolate and new beginnings. Both, of course, relating to Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.

First off: chocolate. I hope that everyone reading this has recently experienced the joys of chocolate.

I grew up in a family of chocoholics and am something of a black sheep: I am not addicted to the stuff. That said, I enjoy it and believe chocolate has its place. (Come to think of it, I don't recall knowing anyone who doesn't like chocolate. By all means, prove me wrong but I'm yet to meet someone who detests it.) I can't eat much of the stuff in one sitting but sometimes I find myself in situations where the only logical thing to do is eat a piece of chocolate. (Such as when I'm writing a particularly fiendish law research paper. Or on Easter Sunday.)

Audrey Hepburn was another proponent of the importance of chocolate, saying: 'Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.' Sean Ferrer also recounts his mother eating a piece of chocolate every afternoon after her nap in his memoir. By all accounts, chocolate was one of Audrey Hepburn's little pleasures in life.

Unfortunately, I could not find a picture of Miss Hepburn eating chocolate. Instead, I chose a picture of her with Ip - the fawn she raised during the making of Green Mansions:

My reasoning is simple, really: Audrey loved Ip. Audrey also loved chocolate. Therefore, the two are related.

And my reasoning for discussing chocolate is even more simple. Chocolate is sometimes a necessary part of life. Audrey Hepburn was a proponent of this view. Therefore, you should all go and eat some chocolate.

Now that chocolate has been covered, it's time to move on to the second universal topic of this post: new beginnings. An unavoidable part of life, really: things end, things begin, things change.

Grace Kelly embarked on her own new beginning shortly after Easter 1956, when she sailed to Monaco to marry Prince Rainier. She left behind her home, her friends, her family and her career to start what was virtually an entirely new life.

The unknown can be wonderful and terrifying but I believe that to truly live your life, you need to venture out there fairly frequently. Most of my fondest memories and rewarding experiences come from such times.

Whatever you believe or don't believe, I hope this weekend nevertheless marks a new beginning for you. (And for me, come to think of it!) While I doubt any of us are about to sail off to an exotic locale to marry into royalty, I hope we have some sort of exciting new beginning. Whether it's meeting a new person, taking up a new hobby, discovering something new about ourselves, facing one of fears or whatever else.

And while we eat chocolate and have new adventures, I hope we have as much fun as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly did, raising Ip and sailing off into the sunset (respectively):

No 4: To L'Interdit or to Gin Fizz?

My obsession with Grace Kelly & Audrey Hepburn has seen me go as far as trying to smell like them. Christmas 2009, I begged for and was given Givenchy's L'Interdit: the perfume made for Audrey Hepburn at the end of the 1950s. L'Interdit means 'forbidden'. Hepburn biographies and the like say the name comes from the fact that for the first year of its life, the perfume was only available to Audrey. Pretty exclusive, then (for a year, anyway).

The only thing that could make me as excited as smelling like Audrey Hepburn is smelling like Grace Kelly. I didn't think this was possible, though, since until the end of last year I thought her signature perfume was not sold in Australia. (I had big plans to stock up on the perfume on my next trip to Paris. But considering I haven't been to Paris for six years, I expected to have to do a bit of waiting.)

Vogue Australia happily proved me wrong in one of its final issues for 2010, when it announced that Lubin's Gin Fizz is now available in select David Jones stores in Australia. So Christmas 2010, I begged for and was given Grace Kelly's signature perfume.

On the left is Givenchy's L'Interdit. On the right is Lubin's Gin Fizz. And above you can see my mad photography skills. (Not really.)

Now that I have both Ms Hepburn's and Ms Kelly's signature scents, I am faced with a daily conundrum: do I want to smell like Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly?

Of course, it depends, to a large extent, on my mood.

L'Interdit has quite a strong scent. Two sprays of that perfume and people in the next room will be able to smell you coming. Which is by no means a bad thing, it's just a thing. The perfume itself smells a bit musky and powdery (and by 'powdery', I mean in the Chanel No.5 sense, not the baby powder sense), and it has good staying power. If I want to feel elegant and loveable, and if I want people around me to be able to smell my perfume easily, L'Interdit tends to be a winner.

Gin Fizz and I are still getting to know each other, since we've only been together for almost three weeks now. Being named after a cocktail, I must admit the perfume easily made its way to my heart. A perfume that Grace Kelly loved and that is named after a cocktail?! That's a pretty darn good start. (I am yet to try a Gin Fizz, though. It should be a New Year's resolution. Although I'd have to drink the cocktail whilst wearing the perfume, otherwise it just would not feel right.)

As a perfume, Gin Fizz has a citrus-y and floral scent. It is more subtle than L'Interdit: the staying power of Gin Fizz is as good as L'Interdit's but put on two sprays, and it will only be smelt by those close to you. And I mean 'close to you' in a literal sense. People won't be able to smell you coming but if you hug someone or are sitting next to them, they'll be able to smell your cocktail of a perfume. Because of this subtlety, I feel more mysterious wearing Gin Fizz while the scent itself makes me feel feminine. It has more of a romantic feel to it so the next date I have, I will definitely be donning the Gin Fizz.

Out of the two perfumes, which I both like, I must admit I'm leaning more towards Gin Fizz overall as my preferred scent. I like the subtlety and femininity of it, and I feel it suits my skin better than L'Interdit. It's funny, isn't it, how the same perfume can smell so different when it's worn by different people. Ultimately, the perfume hunt is about finding the scent that suits your skin best.

And it is also about working the emotions a perfume creates to your advatage. I have a range of different perfumes that I wear for different purposes: one to make me feel like Audrey Hepburn, one to make me feel like Grace Kelly, one to make me feel confident, one to make me feel pretty and one to make me feel calm and happy. Perhaps it's just me but I find smell to be a pretty powerful thing, especially the smell of perfumes. It creates memories, brings back memories and evokes emotions.

While it's fun to smell like Audrey Hepburn & Grace Kelly, I think the only way to be truly Hepburn and Kelly-ish is to find what works for you and stick to that. Both Ms Hepburn and Ms Kelly found their own styles and had perfumes made just to suit them. While most of us probably won't end up having a perfume made in our honour, we can embrace our individuality and choose things that suit us rather than the masses.

And what could be more Kelly and Hepburn-ish than that?

No 3: The Art of Smart

One of the things I love most about Audrey Hepburn is her intelligence.

Watching or reading interviews, it is clear she was an articulate, informed woman. And the jobs she did, she did well. Audrey Hepburn, working for UNICEF, knew her stuff inside out: she thoroughly researched the places she visited to understand the how and whys of the heartaches she saw. Her son's memoir, An Elegant Spirit, contains one of the speeches she wrote in her UNICEF years. It's beautifully written and informative - well worth a read.

The interviews and speeches she gave for UNICEF also reveal her personality. She was never aggressive in making her point; she was gentle and hearfelt, and I think that made her pleas all the more effective. One clip, where she's talking about Somalia, you can see her fighting back tears before finally brushing one off her face. In another, she made the comment, "These are not natural disasters but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution: peace."

She came with the facts and figures imbedded in her mind after hours of research and combined this with her instinctive compassion. What a combination! Audrey Hepburn could carry - heck, she could lead - a conversation about the situation in Somalia while showing genuine concern for the suffering and I think this combination of awareness and compassion is why she reached so many people during her UNICEF years.

I'm trying to up my Hepburn-factor by being more informed and more caring. It is important to know what is happening in the world around us so we can understand not only how lucky we really are (gratitude was an art Ms Hepburn was well-trained in) but also what we can do to help. As Ms Hepburn said:

"Since the world existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing."

So let's make Audrey Hepburn smile and become compassionately informed.

It doesn't matter how we start - reading the newspaper each day, following UNICEF on twitter - as long as we start. And we keep at it.



(Audrey Hepburn could also speak several languages and randomly quote Tagore but I figure we're all multi-lingual people with an encyclopedic knowledge of literature so I didn't bother going into this.)

No 2: Elegant Coverage

I had something of a revelation the other day.



I went to a big family dinner, to celebrate a cousin's birthday. And, of course, I paid close attention to my apperance. I did my hair, carefully applied my make-up and wore a (hopefully) co-ordinating, elegant outfit.



All was going well until my cousin and I decided to play badminton. It's the middle of summer here and the sun was still pretty intense when we started playing. Being the smart girl she is, my cousin was prepared with sunglasses and a hat to match her outfit.



Me?



I had the sunglasses but no hat. And, with the sun streaming down on my head, I quickly accepted the offer to have a hat loaned to me.



The only problem was that the hat looked like this:

Truly.

While it was kind and generous of my aunt to loan me the hat, it did slightly ruin the aura of elegance and sophistication I was aiming for.

Grace Kelly would never be caught in a situation like that.

Ms Kelly had hats (or turbans) for every occasion and had no trouble matching head-wear with clothes.

She received criticism for the hat she wore in the above picture: arriving in Monaco to marry a certain prince, the photographers were dismayed with her hat, complaining it blocked the view of her face.

Personally, I think the hat contributes to the elegance of her outfit.

While I have no plans to begin a hat collection to rival Grace Kelly's, I am realising the value of owning at least one hat. As Ms Kelly showed us, the right hat can add even more elegance to an outfit. As I showed us, the wrong hat can ruin an outfit. I have never been a big hat-wearer but there is a time and a place for those things. If we can be sun-smart and elegant at the same time, then more power to us!

As a beach holiday with friends is quickly approaching for me, I do not want to be caught out hat-less again. So, with this entirely legitimate shopping excuse before me, it is time to find me the perfect, elegant hat and I suggest you do the same.

Grace Kelly would approve.

No 1: The Morning After (Christmas, that is)

Ah, Christmas.

I love everything about the holiday. From the lead up with its downpour of Christmas movies, Christmas music and Christmas parties flowing with champagne, to the day itself, with family, gifts, excited children, yet more champagne and food.

If you are like me, everything is wonderful until Christmas ends and you realise just how much food and champagne you have ingested over the period. The belt to my favourite dress no longer comfortably slips through the tightest notch and I'm thanking God that my new nightie and dressing gown aren't close-fitting. Not to mention the fact that I'm constantly yawning from the combination of parties, shopping and Christmas day itself.

The post-Christmas phase has certainly set in and it is difficult to feel Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn-ish.

Or is it?

I remember reading that Audrey would occasionally hibernate for a weekend to "recharge her batteries. " She would rest, listen to music, read and regain the energy she needed to continue being Audrey Hepburn.

I've decided I incorporated a touch of Audrey into my life today by spending it on the couch, reading Tender is the Night and watching episodes of House. Except I will only truly incorporate that touch of Audrey in my life if I spend the equivalent of a weekend doing so, which means another day of House on the couch. (Isn't life tough?) Hopefully by that time, the belt of my favourite dress will be restored to its former glory.

The point is: when it's time to recharge your batteries, it's time to recharge your batteries. And I think post-Christmas is the perfect time to spend a good couple of days doing nothing to bring back your energy, especially since New Year's Eve (and the champagne that accompanies it) is right around the corner.

Happy hibernating!

In the Beginning...

Those who know me - even if they do not know me well - know that I am obsessed with Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.

When a friend unfortunately mentioned the label Givenchy, I immediately delved into a detailed history of Hubert Givenchy's relationship with Audrey Hepburn. She yawned, I was too involved in my story to notice yet we remained friends.

When I met the costume designer for a play I was in, I spent most of our meeting proclaiming my love for Grace Kelly after I found a picture of Ms Kelly on my character's inspiration board. Perhaps not the best impression to give someone when you first meet, that of the crazed fan.

My obsession clearly needs an outlet. And what better outlet than a blog?

This blog, in fact.

On Grace and Audrey is a blog detailing my attempt to incorporate a touch of Grace or Audrey - or perhaps even Grace and Audrey - into my everyday life. Hopefully, the readers will be able to learn from or even practise some of my attempts and we can all be one, happy, elegant family.

Will I succeed in my attempt?

Will I have any readers?

Will my blog be a sufficient outlet for my obsessions or will I continue to frighten/bore friends and strangers alike?

Only time will tell.