Our little Lucy is a huge Audrey Hepburn fan. This year we have set out to recreate some of Hepburn’s iconic moments and the first on the list was Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
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The Recreation Tour
Our five (nearly six) year-old daughter loves Audrey Hepburn movies. While Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote’s instant classic) can be a little mature for her age, most of it goes over her head and she loves dressing up like Holly Golightly. When we found a designer to make Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s iconic little black dress, we had to make her dreams come true.
When our daughter wanted to go to Paris we began setting up a tour. She doesn’t usually ask to go anywhere so we wanted to make this happen. Here is our recreation tour:
- New York City – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Paris – Funny Face
- Rome – Roman Holiday
You Can Actually Have Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The Blue Box Cafe offers breakfast inside Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue flagship store. Breakfast is $29/person, Lunch is $39, and a tea service in the afternoon is available for $49. For a little girl who loves the movies and the parents of an only-child who want to give her everything, it seemed like a bargain.
Unfortunately, you will need to plan ahead. We didn’t execute this well and couldn’t even snag a table through American Express Platinum’s concierge program. That’s my fault. As luck would have it, we would still need to stop and pick up edible props so it didn’t really matter. If you want to eat in the Blue Box Cafe, plan ahead for a real life meal inside the store.
The Results
We wanted to recreate the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and for that we had a custom dress made by a designer for children’s dresses, Maisie Jayne. We reached out on Instagram and she was happy to help with this special request. Here is the result:
Conclusion
We stayed at the Park Hyatt New York City for free using points, we flew there using credits from a credit card we hold and only paid for some meals (hotel status helped) and some of our Uber rides (credit card gives Uber cash). For very little out of pocket we were able to have this exceptional weekend and make some memories that will last a lifetime. It was totally worth the effort for us to have these photos and this weekend to remember.
What do you think? Did we pull it off? Have you tried to recreate a moment from your child’s favorite movies? How did it go?
Not sure what to think of this story…. we are talking about a 5 year old who gets a custom made dress to have “breakfast at Tiffany’s” prior to going to Paris and Rome….. something is odd here, like seriously odd.
There is nothing odd. You have parents who love their child giving her some wonderful memories. People do things like this for the kids all the time. For crying out loud Disney is freaking built on the premise!!
As the dad of a little girl I love it!
I was going to get out my loud Dad voice, but thanks for stepping in 121.
Why so defensive? It’s a public forum, people can express differing opinions to yours. I wouldn’t say this was “odd” but it is certainly at the height of indulgence.
How is it the “height of indulgence”? Those are three major tourist cities. Their is a lot to see in those cities and getting dresses that match closely isn’t hard. Its a travel blog so I suspect Kyle has lots of points with which to pay for this journey.
Compared to parents dropping thousands and thousands of dollars on a Disney trip (get your little girl dressed and her hair done in the castle!) this is positively cheap and worth while.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is NOT Disney.
No one said it was
Sounds like great parenting to me! What a blast that must of been. Of course woke Democrats will hate it for “gender stereotyping, contributing to global warming, income inequality, etc, etc, blah blah blah”. You people are no fun and won’t be content till everyone suffers equally, western civilization is destroyed and everyone is as bitter and unhappy as you are.
You sound like a barrel of laughs yourself…
I was kind of thinking along the same lines. I don’t have any children (but I was one, once!) but I feel like they won’t really remember and appreciate a lot of travel done when they’re that young. And I also think that if you get them used to being able to have and do whatever they want, especially when it’s as expensive as custom dresses and flights to Europe, I worry about what kind of teenagers and adults they will turn into. Will they expect that getting whatever they want will be easy? Will they appreciate that not many other kids/teens have been as fortunate as they are?
Then I always wonder about little kids dressing up like Holly Golightly. I mean she was pretty much an escort. She would go out with men, who expected to sleep with her and gave her money for ‘the powder room,’ and she would stand them up and just sweetly take the money. She wanted to find a rich man, regardless of his personality (or looks!). Not saying I don’t like the character. I just don’t know if it’s appropriate for kids.
Now what I think WOULD be an appropriate way to have an Audrey Hepburn-inspired trip for a child might be to go do some charity work. Audrey was all about that, helping raise awareness to the children dying in Africa and South America. She survived WWII in Holland and worked at a hospital while living under Nazi rule, and when she was older was an ambassador for UNICEF. I love her fashion, and her films, but I think it’s important to do what she was trying to do with her name and her fame – use it to draw attention to those in need. I think it’s a great opportunity, having a child be fascinated with Audrey. You could show her the good work Audrey did for others, and offer the opportunity to ‘be like Audrey’ and do some volunteer work. Just some of my thoughts… 🙂
Four notes on this.
First, she may or may not remember all of the trips we take her on, but what does stay with her is certain experiences and a fearless approach to many things other kids fear. For example, how many kids do you know that want their birthday dinner at a restaurant that serves xiaolongbao? She knows that her favorite foods may not be on the menu where we go, so she isn’t afraid of chopsticks and doesn’t throw a fit if she doesn’t have chicken nuggets – that will stay with her through her life, as well as an understanding of when it is appropriate to speak and when it isn’t due to the unique situations she encounters when she travels. I know adults that are still working on this.
Second, for a trip that cost us nothing but points for the hotel ($1,000/nt Park Hyatt), just $50 for all three plane tickets ($150/per less a credit card that gave us two $200 credits), some transportation (Uber credits) and several included meals with the hotel – spending $100 on a custom-made dress seems like a bargain weekend to me. Would it have been better if we were able to source a hand-me-down that looked the part but spent $2500 out of pocket for the rest of our trip? The points were the extravagance, not the dress.
Third, the character’s job was nuanced but never stated. We can all infer what she did for a living, but my goodness, can’t a cute look just be a look? Is Tiffany’s associating themselves with prostitution by featuring her imagery and namesake around the stores? What about with the mafia and drug shipments as those were the messages Golightly was exchanging at Singsong? Our daughter has no idea about any of those things and I am shocked that this is a thing. When did dressing up like Pocahontas because she was admired turn into appropriation?
Lastly, like many families, we were going to go on the trip to Europe regardless. The destinations, however, were inspired by Lucy’s Hepburn obsession. From your comment, it is as if you suggest we would be better suited to leave her at home so that she grew in appreciation for the trips themselves rather than what she takes from going on them. I guess we could call it a difference of opinion, but I fully believe that it is to her benefit that she is open to the world, comfortable in it and with the knowledge that everything is possible if she puts her mind to it. Hepburn’s charity work is admirable and should be lauded as you’ve pointed out.
“While Breakfast at Tiffany’s can be a little mature for her age, most of it goes over her head”
Given how Holly pays her bills, that might be for the best…
How fun and wonderful. Kudos to you for finding a unique way to embrace and support her interest in the arts. That will only continue to grow as she does…and an appreciation for old school storytelling is a blessing. Great pics too.
If it is about the dress and hair and “Tiffany’s” fine. But keep in mind that the actual character Audrey Hepburn played was of low moral character, basically a high class prostitute and not someone who should be emulated,
Believe it or not, our daughter liked the outfits and the aloof nature of Miss Golightly and never questioned her source of income nor her trips to Singsong. We also don’t embrace the depiction of Asian-Americans by Mickey Rooney.
It’s not like we have her dressing up like Julia Roberts from Pretty woman and turning down tricks in West Hollywood. Sometimes, looking into something too deeply can be a “big mistake, huge.”
So basically, it’s ok for her to dress up as a classy prostitute…? The clothes don’t make the ho.
Your really going to associate a prostitute and a beautiful little girl? What kind of low life are you?
If that’s what you took from what I said, then maybe you’re the lowlife, not me, since my point clearly pole-vaulted over your head.
Try to not the twist your ankle once you have dismounted off of that high horse of yours.
I defer to your daughter, but Charade seems to be the iconic Audrey Hepburn in Paris movie to me. Otherwise this is adorable.
Hey, at least she didn’t choose Paris When It Fizzles…er, Sizzles.
On another note, did you hear LVMH has offered to buy Tiffany for US$11.9B?
Smart move, LVMH knows what they are doing.
I love this! The photos are adorable.
Best. Story. Ever. ❤️
Put on “Wait Until Dark” . Eventually she’ll stop screaming. Perhaps I’m being mean….it’s a nice, smart hobby for a six year old. Mostly they want Shaun the Sheep or Peppa the Pig.
Poor girl… Being the victim of parents fantasy…. Have no choice but to obey mom and dad.
“Have you tried to recreate a moment from your child’s favorite movies? How did it go? ”
Yes, Pirates of the Caribbean. We started in Old San Juan, visiting both forts. The plan was to also visit one of the ships used in the filming that was docked in the harbor. As luck would have it, the ship was closed to tours the day of our visit. It later sunk in a storm.
The balance of the trip was on St. John and when not in swim trunks, my son dressed like a pirate.
How did it go? Aside from me not knowing the ship wasn’t open for tours that day, it was delightful.
He didn’t grow up to be a pirate, yet 🙂 So I think its safe to say the darling Lucy isn’t on the road to prostitution.
@Heather – I love that idea. And we agree that if kids that recreated their favorite movies when they were kids grew up to become them, I’d be driving a Delorian and trying to fix the space-time continuum.
@Heather thank god someone on here is normal with a sense of humor and fun. Some of these comments- jeesh.
The pictures are adorable and she will love looking back on them.
I don’t care how Holly made her money- its a good movie with an interesting female lead who is strong and makes no excuses for her life in a time when choices were still very slim for women. Re-watch the movie y’all.
My goodness the amount of haters that came out of the woodwork on this post! Kyle I think it’s wonderful what you did and I’m sure in the future your daughter will appreciate the memories and photos 😉
And I concur. I loved the post and the pictures. It was an incredible memory Kyle gave his daughter that she will treasure (and he will treasure) for the rest of their lives. Bravo.
Dear Mathew: as a fan of your blog and frequent reader, I kindly request that posts continue to be travel and airline industry related, since that’s why we visit the blog. I don’t see how this post is related to the topic of the blog.
Safe travels and keep up the good work!
@Go Tx! My name is Kyle. I author posts on Sundays along with my wife who focuses on family travel. We’ve done so for about the last two years.
While I agree with the sentiment of your comment, I’d like to defend the post. We took a trip (travel) for the sole purpose of fulfilling something special for our daughter made possible by the use of miles and points.
I didn’t get into the details of our trip because I didn’t think it was necessary other than the loose itinerary I included and that it was made possible by our hobby. I’ll concede it wasn’t a heavy dose of airline industry analysis (nearly all of my posts this year have been concentrated on the big three and Southwest) but I didn’t think it needed to be. After all, we travel for a purpose, maybe that’s a perfect pizza, to retrace our ancestor’s steps, or just to see something new – but for this trip, the experience I posted was our purpose.
That said, this is also not nearly as off topic as other travel blogs I’ve seen that include any possible deal like a price mistake on sponges, a review of “travel pants” (sponsored, naturally), I’ve even seen a review of a plant-based hamburger from a National chain. So while I agree, this post is not core insider details and may not be as on message with a breakdown of what points we spent at the Park Hyatt New York City or the credit card airline credits that paid for our flights, it seemed ok to me to talk about what we do at the destination instead of just covering how we get there.
Thank you for reading. I hope you’ll come back and encourage you to comment again as you see fit.
Dear Kyle: I always read your Sunday posts and enjoy them, you have the ability to transmit excitement thru your words!
I’m sure you have a beautiful family, great kid and all, but as a father of 3, and grandfather of 7, the only cute pictures I want to be seeing are those of my own family; that’s why I don’t even go on Facebook and other social media.
As I said before, readers like me come to this site to read interesting and updated posts about travel and the fascinating airline industry, and we enjoy it! I know other blogs post some very bad content, and that’s exactly why we like this one 😉
I hope you understand my point, and that no offense is taken.
Once again, thank you for your Sunday posts and all the great writing you do for this blog.