Grace and favour
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace kelly
Hermès named a cult bag design after her. Mika shot to the top of the charts with a song inspired by her. Betty Draper, the fictional wife of Mad Men\'s dishiest protagonist, was modelled on her. And finally, with the backing of her favourite jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels and her family, the V&A is launching its long-awaited exhibition of treasures from her wardrobe. Grace Kelly, Hollywood\'s sweetheart who married her prince and got the Happy Ever After, is decidedly in vogue - although, whether she ever left it at all is questionable.
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Born and raised in Philadelphia, Grace hit the Hollywood big-time opposite Clark Gable in the 1953 hit Mogambo and was one of the decade\'s biggest box office stars - despite a career spanning just 11 films (three of them, famously, directed by Alfred Hitchcock). Many would say that making the transition from Hollywood royalty to true royalty following her highest-of-high profile marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand de Grimaldi, in 1956, was the biggest role of her life.
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Whether kicking up her heels in Hollywood or attending official engagements later in life, Kelly\'s stand-out style remained consistent: always demure, always elegant. Her penchant for skirt suits, sunglasses and short white day gloves was a refreshing point of difference to the overtly sexy style of peers such as Marilyn Monroe. Her trademark love of hats, turbans and headscarves spoke of a subtly of style not often known today.
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Princess Grace, we - and the V&A - bow down to you.
Picture: A studio portrait of Grace, taken to promote Rear Window in 1954. She wears a lavish tulle ballgown with black bodice, opera gloves and a single string of pearls.
Bow wow
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
At the 1954 Cannes Film Festival (where she first met Prince Rainier of Monaco, at a photocall), wearing a black knit over a pussy-bow blouse and a pearl bracelet.
Having a ball
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace, in a black ballgown and white fur stole and gloves, with French actor Jean Pierre Aumont at the International Cannes Film Festival, May 1955.
Blousy day
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Still on photo opp duty in Cannes, May 1955; posing aboard a boat in a fashion-forward ruffle-front blouse and embellished capri pants.
Fairytale ending
audrey hepburn,Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace kelly
With fellow actress and Academy Award presenter Audrey Hepburn - each in a fairytale tulle gown with drop pearl earrings and white gloves - waiting backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards in March 1956.
Shawl thing
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace, in a lace-edged shawl over a shirt dress, being interviewed by journalists aboard the Constitution (the yacht upon which she and her wedding party sailed to Monaco prior to her wedding) in May 1956.
On safari
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
With soon-to-be husband Prince Rainier in Monaco, just ahead of their wedding in April 1956, wearing a skirt suit with tailored safari-style jacket over a white shirt and tie, plus white gloves, sunglasses and a turban.
Fit for a princess
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace the bride with her new husband, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, on 19 April 1956 - the day of their religious wedding ceremony. Grace\'s dress was designed by Helen Rose, wardrobe designer at MGM, the former actress\' studio. The high-necked, long-sleeved gown was made from twenty-five yards of silk taffeta, one hundred yards of silk net, peau de soie, tulle and 125-year-old Brussels rose point lace, and it took six weeks and 36 seamstresses to perfect. She also wore a Juliet cap that was decorated with seed pearls, orange blossoms, and a veil of 90 yards of tulle.
Street style
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace - wearing a pale overcoat, black turban, sunglasses, leather gloves, loafers and carrying a box bag - and Prince Ranier are followed down the street by well-wishers in Lausanne, Switzerland, shortly after the birth of Princess Caroline in 1957.
A head for hats
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
In a trademark turban, white gloves and skirt suit for an official engagement at the White House with her husband in May 1961.
Flower power
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Circa 1962 in Monaco, wearing a belted white shirt dress with flower embroidery and flowers woven into her hair.
Psychedelic snapper
Fashion icon,Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Taking photos at a 1972 swimming competition in Palm Beach, Monte Carlo, in a psychedelic kaftan, pink turban and sunglasses.
