GRACE AND STYLE

MILLIONS OF WOMEN MAY GIVE ALL THE LUXURY LIPSTICKS IN THE WORLD TO LOOK LIKE HER TODAY, SO IT’S PERHAPS PARADOXICAL THAT THE ELEGANT LOOK THAT GRACE KELLY PULLED OFF WAS ALL APPARENTLY DOWN TO A VERY EFFORTLESS APPROACH.

The late actress and princess applied a similar simple attitude to her wardrobe as the set of values that she lived her life by.

Her style is currently the subject of a Victoria & Albert museum exhibition that was nearly two years in the making. It will probably turn out to be the most popular one ever held in the museum’s Fashion Gallery temporary exhibition space.

Grace, who married Prince Rainier III in 1956, was “loyal to her old clothes the way she was loyal to her old friends”, one magazine article in the 1950s reported her as saying.

“I just buy my clothes when they take my eye,” she said.

“And I wear them for years.” Her treasured brown leather Hermes “Kelly” handbag, which collected numerous marks over the years, is probably the most famous example of this.

V&A curator of fashion Jenny Lister says that the Style Icon exhibition, which features mostly items on loan from the Princely Palace in Monaco, is surprisingly attracting, among others, many 20-somethings and younger people born after Grace tragically plunged off a cliff in Monaco in 1982.

“You often see fashion students sketching the dresses, so they are still clearly interested in using Grace Kelly’s wardrobe as a reference and maybe as inspiration for their designs,” she says.

Although her life story was “extraordinary, encompassing the glamour of Hollywood and European royalty,” Grace Kelly became “almost a kind of short-hand or code for that classic, restrained way of dressing that never quite goes out of fashion, in contrast to more outlandish, or overtly sexual styles”, Lister says.

“She loved things that were beautifully made,” Lister says.

“Perhaps things are not made to last as well these days.

“But I think from Grace Kelly we can all learn to appreciate our clothes more, look after them and enjoy them too.”

Of course post-war austerity may have had a lot to do with her demure, sensual style.

But even when she was sporting a diaphanous silk chiffon dress that billowed out into a beautifully flared full length skirt, perfect for dancing with Frank Sinatra, or an elaborate gold headpiece like the one she donned for a 1969 Dier des Testes bash – it was so fancy that Grace had to ride there on the floor of a van – the princess’ personality still outshone any diamond. She wore the clothes, and not the other way around.

“I think it’s important to see the person first and the clothes afterwards,” Grace in fact once remarked.

“I have to choose simple clothes because when I wear anything dramatic I seem to get lost.”

During the 1950s Grace’s face was plastered on hundreds of magazines.

LIFE featured her on an April 1955 cover in the Edith Head pale blue silk satin coat that she’d worn to accept her Best Actress Oscar that year.

Another magazine circa the same carried the headline: “Grace Kelly tells how to travel light”. Can you imagine today’s style icons, the likes of Victoria Beckham, doing the same?

Interestingly, Grace Kelly was the first to admit that she’d never be seen front row at the fashion shows.

In fact, she was the first one to admit that she never attended fashion parades, proving – may we all breathe a collective sigh of relief -  that one can care about more than fashion and still become a style icon.

“Grace had determination and worked hard for her success, and had to make difficult decisions about her career and family,” says Lister.

Although the exhibition, which lasts until September 26, has been a crowd puller for the V&A, the press coverage it’s received hasn’t been all positive. One broadsheet reviewer in fact branded it ”damp squib”. Visitors may also agree that there is far too much packed into two small galleries. While the same critic was apparently disappointed by the worn-out handbags which appeared to have come from a “high-class Oxfam shop”, another broadsheet fashion writer seemed to celebrate Grace Kelly’s ‘thrifty approach’, pointing out that while the royal may have had the same handbag for years, today Victoria Beckham is believed to own more than 100 by the same label. I am inclined to agree with the latter approach.

What I took away most from the exhibition wasn’t really to do with the actual physical items that Grace Kelly carried, but how she carried herself.

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Words Amy Fallon