Hepburn's black dress outfits schools

LAXMIKANTAPUR, India, March 1 (UPI) -- Doors opened to students and visitors at the first school in India outfitted with proceeds from the sale of Audrey Hepburn's signature little black dress.

The school at Laxmikantapur near Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, complete with computers and teaching aids, will provide an education to about 200 children who otherwise might not get one, the BBC said.

The school is the first of 15 planned to open, thanks to the anonymous bidder who bought the Givenchy-designed dress for more than $900,000. Proceeds from the auction went to the Kolkata-based charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India's poor through a network of schools, clinics, rehabilitation centers and hospital boats.

Designer Hubert de Givenchy donated the dress -- especially designed for Hepburn in her role as Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- to the City of Joy Aid, run by French author and philanthropist Dominique Lapierre, who was on had for the school's opening.

Lapierre said the school was a fitting tribute to Hepburn, who spent the last years of her life helping the poor by working as an ambassador for United Nations Children's Fund.