‘The Hepburn’ is the latest way to frame your face so you look fit

The Grace Face marked a new era of purity in selfies. The hand under the chin, the head at a slight angle – the pose framed the face with subtle elegance. But now it is over, and in its place comes The Hepburn.

Of course, your hand still frames your face – the whole point of the selfie is to show off your face – but this latest pose – perfected by the Kardashian/Jenner clan, Gigi Hadid and Jourdan Dunn – also shows off your nails and languid palm. It cups your face. You can place your hand, which will slightly resemble a claw, just under your chin, by your ear, or indeed on the top of your forehead. It doesn’t matter where the hand rests, as long as it looks accidental and pensive, as if to say: “oh, you caught me off guard!” Therein lies its innocence.

Blogger Huda Kattan has named the pose “T-Rex Hands”, but that’s not very aspirational. It does not suggest a fierce new way to express  your (slight) vanity – it makes you sound like you have some weird body dysmorphia that makes you see your hands as tiny and Trump-like.

Huda justified the name, saying “if you zoom out and do it to both hands, you look kind of like a T-Rex”. Sure, she’s not wrong. But dig a little deeper into the pose’s origins, and Hollywood icon Audrey Hepburn was doing it long before Huda came up with her clumsy phrase.

The most iconic picture of Hepburn is the one from Breakfast at Tiffany’s where she is staring into the camera, cigarette holder loosely held in one hand while the other is cupped, fingers slightly bent and gracefully positioned just under her chin. She masters its innocence, purity and nonchalance.

The Hepburn allows you to subtly draw attention to the most attractive part of your face; whether it’s your eyes, lips, cheekbones or hair. Huda may have been wrong about its name, but she wasn’t wrong about how flattering the pose is, adding: “something just looks so elegant about your hand when it’s bent that way. So you can put it on your chin, on your hair… even on your forehead. And it looks good every way.” And the pose is flexible: you can be shy, using your hand to brush your fringe back while you look down; you can be sexy, hovering around your mouth with lips slightly parted; you can be cute, hand under chin as you smile.

Avid Hepburner Elizabeth Reid loves the purity of The Hepburn. She said: “It’s my new favourite pose, how can you not love it? It accentuate your favourite features on your face, depending on where you position your hand”. Bella, another fan, added: “It makes me feel sassy. It’s softer than the Grace Face.”

The posers have spoken: Hepburn is the belle of them all.