When things like this happen in the fashion world, we can’t help but say, “Aww.”
The fashion gods at Harper’s Bazaar have staged a throwback photoshoot for their September issue cover, and we’re totally into it. They’ve paired Audrey Hepburn’s granddaughter Emma Ferrer with Richard Avedon’s grandson Michael Avedon for a model and photographer duo half a century in the making.
It has a '60s reference, but it’s in no way trying to recreate Avedon’s iconic images of Hepburn (thank God, because that is impossible). It’s nostalgic, and it reminds us that the relationship between Avedon and Hepburn was truly magical and irreplaceable.
A little fashion backstory: Hepburn was Avedon’s muse in the '60s and '70s. (She was a lot of people's muses, obviously). The photographer is responsible for shooting some of the most iconic images of Hepburn, including her beatnik-inspired all-black dancing portraits and her portraits from the set of Funny Face. Avedon said of Hepburn:
I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait.
Wow. That's one hell of a compliment. And though Avedon has shot countless other celebrities over the years, including Steven McQueen, Twiggy and Diane Ross, and was the chief photographer at Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue throughout the 1950s and '60s, he’s most known for the images he captured of Hepburn.
Their powerful photographer/muse relationship is indeed a rare one—and we're all too happy to see their legacies live on in the modern-day pages of Harper's Bazaar.
