She Wears the Trousers

It may surprise you that actress Katharine Hepburn won a staggering four Academy Awards during her Hollywood career - more than even the great Meryl Streep. Hepburn was nominated 12 times overall for the acclaimed Oscars, but it was her acting roles in 'Morning Glory,' Guess who's Coming to Dinner,' 'The Lion in Winter' and 'On Golden Pond' which won her the jackpot, four times. It's a great trivia fact just because it's so unexpected. Katharine Hepburn was one of the great Hollywood actresses in the 1940s and 50s with a career which spanned right up to the 80s and beyond, giving her a huge 60 year time span in the movie business. She made her last screen appearance in 1994, and passed away in 2003 aged 96. If you don't know an awful lot about Hepburn (and often confuse her with Audrey) then keep reading - she was quite a character and most importantly - extremely stylish creating a look for herself unlike any other actress at the time.

With Cary Grant on set.

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on the 12th May 1907 to wealthy parents in Connecticut. A tomboy as child, Hepburn grew up with her six siblings with a particular penchant for golf, before deciding that acting was what she wanted to do during her college years. In 1921, Hepburn came home to find her brother had hung himself and died - an incident which deeply effected the budding actress and made her extremely suspicious and shy of just about everybody, even her friends. After this traumatic experience, she went into theatre productions, often getting fired from plays, and it wasn't until she was 25 in 1932 that Hollywood picked her up to star in 'A Bill of Divorcement' with John Barrymore. After the success of that movie, Hepburn went on to film 'Morning Glory' and a personal favourite of hers 'Little Women' where she played Jo March. The 1930s weren't great for Hepburn. She made a lot of movies which failed at the box office and she soon fell out of favour with Hollywood bosses.

But, in 1939, Hepburn made one of her most famous films 'The Philadelphia Story' which was a massive success. From then on the reviews were positive, with movies such as 'Bringing up Baby,' 'The African Queen' with Humphrey Bogart and 'Woman of the Year' all cementing Hepburn's acting legacy. I could go on to list all of Katharine's movies but there really are so many of them it would bore you silly. But what I liked about Hepburn was that she was so different from other Hollywood actresses. She was immensely private, and only ever married once at the start of her career aged 21, even though her 26 year affair with Spencer Tracey was widely publicised. She had no children too. But her style is something to celebrate.

Hepburn loved her trousers, favouring high cut styles with silky blouses. In a time when women were expected to dress like women and men expected to dress like men, Katharine broke all the rules and was considered a style icon by many for her unconventional sense of fashion. Her tomboy style, flat shoes, messy hair and love of tailoring was indeed inspiring and very different. Of course, it helped that she was tall and could carry off these long, lean lines. But she was glamorous too, with her wavy brown hair and evening dresses which many women copied after seeing her style on screen. She was different and people like different - a little like Lady Gaga's appeal today.

Katharine Hepburn isn't one of my favourite actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, but I have to acknowledge her incredible sense of style. And seeing that it was International Women's Day this past Wednesday, why not celebrate Hepburn as an early female movie legend - doing whatever she wanted (often demanding a lot of money for her movie parts) and sticking to her rules in an industry which was, and still is, run by men. She is an inspiration to women all over the world and her four Oscars are something which just can't be ignored - stylish and talented rolled into one.