Grace Kelly with her Academy Award for Country Girl (March 30 1955). © Everett Collection/Rex features. Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum
It’s the Oscars, March 1955, and Grace Kelly steals the show – not only for beating Audrey Hepburn and Judy Garland to the gold statuette but also for her sumptuous satin dress, moulded elegantly around her body.
Today this dress is still thrilling the crowds – drawing gasps of excitement, delighted faces and a frenzy of photographic flashes at the V & A’s new show.
With her iconic costumes from Rear Window and other films, gorgeous evening gowns, day dresses, jewels, hats and shoes worn in Hollywood and Monte Carlo, this exhibition reveals just why Kelly remains one of the most stylish icons of all time.
Photograph by Erwin Blumenfeld, New York, 1955. ©The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld 2009
The understated elegance which she pioneered in the 1950s is still the epitome of ideal femininity and reminds us of the decade when the American Dream was flourishing, youth culture exploded and Britons “never had it so good.”
Surprisingly, some of her clothes could still be worn today, from the floaty chiffon evening dress from High Society to the over-sized Oliver Goldsmith shades.
“Her appeal is timeless because her style was neither extreme nor faddish,” says H. Kristina Haugland, author of Grace Kelly Style and associate curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier announce their engagement © Photo by SNAP / Rex Features
“It was very elegant and easy to wear. She found what was right for her and had the confidence to stick to it.”
Demure on the surface with a hint of passion simmering beneath, the ambiguity of her image matches her style.
Lovingly describing the chiffon evening dress Kelly wore in High Society to flirt with Frank Sinatra, Jenny Lister, curator of textiles and fashion at the V&A, explains. “Although the dress is covered up, it is sensual and suggestive because the fabric follows her body.”
Grace Kelly with James Stewart in Rear Window © Everett Collection / Rex Features
Yet not everything she wore worked – for example, the silk taffeta dress with bold floral pattern which she wore when she first met Prince Rainer in 1955.
“It was not in her usual style and I don’t think the lines suit her as well as the classic lines she usually wore,” Haugland says.
Her understated elegance, however, continues to inspire today’s designers. The hip New York designer, Zac Posen, has referenced her in his collections and Vera Wang, the go-to wedding dress designer, has created variations on Kelly’s fabulous wedding dress with its antique lace bodice and bell-shaped silk faille skirt.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco (1956). © Snap/Rex features. Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum
Her well-bred college girl look is still seen in the States as epitomising America, says Haugland, and has influenced both Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren.
The goddess-style draped gowns she wore in films such as To Catch a Thief and High Society reverberated in the 1970s heyday collections of Yves Saint Laurent and Madame Grès, who dressed Barbra Streisand, Jacqueline Kennedy among others – and, more recently, Alber Elbaz’s hot collections for Lanvin.
Red carpet occasions are still full of references to Kelly. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet, among others, often emulate her style at the Oscars. British designers such as Catherine Walker (particularly in relation to Princess Diana), Amanda Wakeley and Bruce Oldfield still dress people in that distinctively glamorous way.
“Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni always keep things simple, which is the secret of dressing people in the public eye,” adds Lister.
This season Kelly’s favoured pastel shades are given a modern twist with mouth watering candy floss tones in baby blue, pale yellow, spearmint and the softest lilac on sheer and floaty fabrics.
Who knows – perhaps there will be more Kelly inspired trends next season?
Grace Kelly: Style Icon continues at the V&A to September 26 2010.
Grace Kelly Style by Kristina Haugland with Jenny Lister and Samantha Erin Safer, V&A Publishing, £19.99
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