Beautiful Grace Kelly has always been my style icon - perhaps in part, due to the fact that I'm ever soo distantly related to her on my Mom's side of the family - and I do mean distant! The story goes in Ireland that if your name's Kelly and you're from County Mayo, then you must be related - or that's how it was portrayed in the press back in 1956 when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco!
Last Tuesday, I got the opportunity to visit the V&A Museum's exhibition of her clothes, which I have wanted to see for many, many years, but have never been lucky enough. As it was, the wedding dress was not on show, as it's still in the museum in Monaco and is far too delicate to be moved I guess - shame, as I would really love to see it - must take a jolly there methinks!
It was wonderful to see so many 'Gracie devotees' in one room, and I met a lot of lovely women, both young and old, who all had their favourite dresses and we spent much time discussing them as we walked around. For those who may be interested in attending, it's running till 26th September so you have plenty of time to pop along and I can highly recommend it!
For more details, go to.........
www.vam.ac.uk/tickets or call 020 7942 2211
Here's just a sample of the wonderful outfits I saw on my visit........enjoy!
This is a gown that Grace wore in the Pre-Wedding Ball scene in the film 'High Society'. I've always loved this dress, but couldn't believe just how beautiful it was close up! It's a pinky/grey silk chiffon, heavily embroidered and it is soo very delicate - not only that, the waist is absolutely tiny !
This is the two piece that Grace wore to her Civil Ceremony before the big day. It's so beautiful as you can see in the next photo......
The colour is a rose beige, very similar in fact to the lovely Odd Molly powder shade, and is a colour that Grace wore a lot of, and with her colouring, you can see why! It's absolutely beautiful, and one of my favourites on the day, as it was one of the costumes I was hoping to see.
And then there was the Oscar dress - and coat actually, but I don't have a photo to hand right now.......
This pale blue heavy satin ensemble is a delight and the construction of the gown was amazing! It's a shame that the display unit this one was in didn't have a mirrored background like some of them, as the detailing is in the back of the dress -however, I did have this picture in a book......
Stunning don't you think?
And then there was this dress - from the 70's I believe. I don't have a phtograph of her wearing it, but will attempt to find one, suffice to say, this dress was simply stunning in real life!
All of the photographs are from various reference books I have, as we were not allowed to take any photos' which was a real shame! And there were soo many of them, but as I don't have close ups it's been difficult to add more at this point - however, I do have some more books up in my craft room, so I will have a root through there and may do a Part 2 blogpost.
For those of you who don't know the wedding dress, here it is.......
Wasn't she so beautiful? I love this photo of her!
The detailling of the dress from the back is simply stunning! In fact, I think I will do another blogpost purely on this dress alone, as I have a fabulous book on the subject!
And to finish (for now!) one of my favourite photo's of her.......pure Grace Kelly style! I used to dress like her all the time when I was working - until I found the Odd Molly style -and that won me over! LOL
Klem!
Mxx
Hi! Thank you for posting these photos, Grace was my cousin and i was so sad to miss seeing the display of her dresses.
ReplyDeleteI do need to correct one thing, and many people make this mistake. The dress Grace is wearing that is identified as her Oscar Dress is actually not. It is very similar, but is the dress she wore to the Premiere of the film she won for, "Country Girl". The Oscar dress did not have a band at the top. It's very silly that the dresses were so similar, but in my research, when i was looking at the premiere and saw her dress, i thought "Why is she wearing the same dress she will later wear to the Oscars?" :) If you look at the detail photo, you can see there's no band.
So, just a little note. I was writing a book and sort of gave up, so hopefully my years of research and money can be useful somehow :)
Hello Amy, how lovely to see you here!
ReplyDeleteAnd to think you're a close relative of the family also, you must have some lovely memories of your aunt!
I think my post does indeed mention that I didn't have a photograph of the Oscar dress and coat, but I can see why the pale blue satin dress underneath my comment would cause confusion tho!
Oh I most sincerely do hope you publish your book and think you should, especially after all the years of research and effort you have put into it - I would buy it for sure as I have so many books on your beautiful Aunt Grace!
It's a real shame that you never got to see the V&A collection as there were so many American ladies there the day I attended, but I was wondering, have you ever been to the Palace to see the beautiful wedding dress? I would love to see it myself!
Thank you so much for dropping by and look forward to hearing from you real soon - I hope you reconsider your thoughts about the book, as it would be a wonderful tribute to a wonderful member of your family who was such a beautiful lady!
Lots of hugs to you from a very dull England today! :-(
Mxx