First Look: Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic

Photo: KSUM Collection

Katharine Hepburn didn’t intend to change the face of American fashion; she just didn’t like wearing skirts. In a quote from Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic, a collection of essays by Jean Druesedow, Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Nancy NacDonell, Judy Samelson, and Kohle Yohannan, Hepburn explained, “Any time I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, ‘Try one. Try a skirt.’” And she meant it — when RKO Pictures execs hid her jeans, she threatened to walk around the studio’s lot naked, taking off everything except for her silk underwear before reclaiming her pants. “Anti-fashion,” “unapologetically casual,” “androgynous,” and “deceptively simple” are some of the ways Hepburn’s style is described in the Rizzoli-published book, which features both well-known and never-before-seen images. Click ahead for a preview of the tome, on sale tomorrow.