Audrey Hepburn’s Love for Paris Ran Deep! How Fashion and Film Made the City Beloved to Actress

In Sabrina, a chauffeur’s daughter attends cooking school in Paris and returns home a sophisticated woman. To play the role, Audrey Hepburn could have worn a dress designed in Paramount’s costume department, but she insisted on a gown by a real French designer to showcase Sabrina’s transformation.

That’s how her affection for Paris — and designer Hubert de Givenchy — began. “They had this friendship that was almost like a love affair,” Audrey’s son Luca Dotti tells Closer exclusively. “It lasted 40 years and was based on their appreciation of clothes and art.” And also Paris!

A new book, Audrey Hepburn in Paris, offers fresh insight into Audrey’s frequent visits to Paris to meet with friends like Givenchy and make movies: Seven of her classic films were lensed at least partly in the City of Light. “Paris was both her playground and her office,” says Luca, who never accompanied her. “The great quality about my mother is that she put 360 degrees between her family life and her professional life.”

In Paris, Audrey always stayed at the elegant Hotel Raphael. “It was where she could go and be a fashion icon,” Meghan Friedlander, author of the new book, tells Closer exclusively. “She could go to the shows, go to dress fittings and then go out to dinner with friends. Her work could be laborious, but Paris allowed her to also have fun.”