Hollywood, royalty and fashion: I couldn’t miss this one.
My main reason for visiting Grace Kelly: Style Icon at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, was to see the 1950s exhibits. The 1950s, my favourite decade for twentieth-century fashion, was the time when Kelly’s style crystallised. Although the exhibition includes designer gowns from the 1960s and 1970s, this was when, as the accompanying leaflet puts it, the Princess of Monaco ‘gracefully ceded the fashion lead to others’, and people crowded round the earlier exhibits, especially the clothes associated with her short film career.
The standout exhibit for me was the elegant dress Kelly wore when her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco was announced in 1956. Cream silk with gold thread, made the year before by Branell (New York) in the shirtwaist style she favoured, it looks simple rather than spectacular – until you see photographs of her wearing it.
The friend I went with was disappointed by how similar the clothes looked. But to me, this was the clue to understanding Grace Kelly’s style. Here’s what I learned:
- If an outfit looks great on the hanger, it’s going to overpower you. Go for something which looks understated by itself, but stunning when you are wearing it with appropriate accessories.
- Don’t wear more than two colours.
- Ideally accessories should be in the second, contrasting colour, and that’s almost always going to be black. Sounds boring, looks stunning. The current obsession with statement accessories is the reason so many women go out looking like a dog’s dinner.
- There are not many styles that will suit your body shape. Find out what they are (in Grace Kelly’s case, shirtwaist dresses, Grecian-style drapery, sleeveless tops, ballerina length skirts, three-quarter sleeves) and stick to them.
- A good fit really, really matters. That means buying fewer pieces so that you will be able to afford to have them altered if necessary.
- Look back to the past for inspiration. (The Hermès bag popularised by Grace Kelly was introduced in the 1930s).
The exhibits are a mix of off-the-peg, designer and clothes made by Hollywood costumiers Edith Head and Helen Rose. The Helen Rose suit Kelly wore for her civil wedding is on display, but not the more famous gown she wore in church. The V&A has sourced photographs and film clips so that visitors can see how the clothes were worn. Jewellery, sunglasses, hats and shoes have their own display cases, as does Kelly’s own Kelly bag (which had obviously seen a lot of wear).
Unfortunately, not all the exhibits were labelled: I couldn’t see labels for the many vintage magazines on display, for the monogrammed luggage or even for Grace Kelly’s Oscar. The installation is crammed into a very small space: as a result, you can’t look at some cases without getting in the way of people watching video clips. They’ve also squeezed a tiny shop in there.
But it’s well worth a look. The exhibition is open until September 26 – and you may avoid the crowds by going first thing in the morning.
Click to go to Youtube and see a short video about the exhibition
Click to go to Youtube and see a Grace Kelly hairstyle tutorial
Click to go to Youtube and see a Grace Kelly makeup tutorial
I bought my own ticket to see this exhibition.
Tags: grace kelly, v&a
Oh, no, I am going to miss this! Thanks for a great post. Love the fashion advice…
It’s what you read in every book about style but looking at the clothes, I realised it was true. I have stuck to the two colour rule for years and just got another black umbrella, so I think I am on the right track. In fact for years I only bought everyday clothes in either black or cream/camel – now I have switched to black and red. It’s a cliche but true I think that French women are more stylish so you don’t need any help, Catherine!
Most of the clothes were from the royal palace in Monaco – I would have loved to know how they were stored and whether they are ever on display there.
Argh, I thought I would be able to see it when I go to London in October! May have to juggle the books a bit so that I can go earlier!
Excellent review – thank you! x
It’s small – much smaller than the Dior exhibition they had a few years ago, but definitely worth it. Looking at the clothes, I was impressed with how tall Grace Kelly was (she started as a model which I didn’t know), how tiny her wrists were, and how slim she stayed in later life. She also had a very small bust. Actually for the 50s she didn’t have the ideal body type because clothes were designed for the hourglass figure (that’s why I like them) so she succeeded in spite of fashion rather than because of it.
Grace was one classy, beautiful lady. Thanks for sharing and I am soooooo relived you bought your own ticket. Would have worried about shilled reviews if they’d sent you a comp ticket
My favourite exhibits were that dress, the Oscar, the Kelly bag and this pink 1950s toque hat:
What struck me as well was how much use she got out of her clothes. She was photographed for a magazine cover in a dress she also wore to a premiere – that would never happen today. But media criticism of celebrities who are seen more than once in the same outfit isn’t about style, it’s about selling products, because magazines are supported by advertising.
Not many women could pull off wearing a hat like that. Grace, maybe Audrey Hepburn. Those furs give me the shudders though. You just Do Not see them here in the tree-hugging Pacific Northwest.
That looks like mink. I’m not sure what the pale fur is that she is wearing in the engagement picture. I don’t really like the look of full fur coats – I prefer fur as a trim, but I would only buy fake fur. My mother had a fake fur coat and we couldn’t work out what fur it was meant to imitate – it looked most like Alsatian dog. I didn’t keep it after she died, it did nothing for me.
Grace Kelly was a “Queen” in her hometown (mine also)of Philadelphia. She lived up to her name. We always welcomed her back with open arms as one of us when she came back home to her roots. Her brother used to portray Washington on Christmas Day in Washington crossing the Delaware to NJ (a ritual going back many years). Her father’s business was so well known that whenever you saw someone wearing a shirt embossed with “Kelly for Brickwork,” you knew who he/she worked for. They have Kelly Drive named after them, as well as other landmarks. We’re proud to call her one of our own!
Ash, thanks so much for commenting – lovely to hear from someone in Philadelphia. Seeing the exhibition really made me want to seek out a biography.
I wish I was in London and could go see this!! Maybe something like this will, eventually, come to NYC and I could go!
It didn’t seem to be a travelling exhibition, which is a pity. I was expecting it would move on to the Met or somewhere like that, but apparently not. Most of the exhibits were owned by Monaco, so hopefully they will be willing to lend them again at some stage.
I wish! It looks like somethign I would love to go to!
Would love to see this — maybe it will come to San Francisco or L.A. someday! Fashion and clothes design has been one of my “things” since my early teens. What you say about fit is absolutely correct. Fortunately, I make a lot of my own clothes (although not as many as I used to) so I am able to make them fit just right. Buying stuff off the hanger is a real challenge. I won’t pay someone else to alter, and I won’t alter myself because that is far more work than making something from scratch! My favorite modern era is the early 1960s.
IMO, Grace Kelley is one of the most outstandingingly beautiful women of all time. She doesn’t need makeup, she doesn’t need photo retouching, she was incredibly beautiful all on her own. In anything she wore. (I did read an article about her once, in which one of her frequent photographers said she had a large-ish square jaw, and he would angle her in photos to downplay it). Having such class was just whipped cream on top.
I do have to say, though, that there is one outfit I have seen her photo’d in that makes me think, “Grace! What happened! Did you get dressed in the dark?!” It was in the 1960s, when she and Prince Rainier made a visit to the Kennedys in DC. Grace wore a lovely dress in deep emerald green (my favorite color). But then she wore this awful hat that was close-fitting like a shower cap. I think it even had flower-things all over it. But worst of all, it was pure, stark white. With the emerald green dress. Even Grace’s beautiful face couldn’t rescue that fiasco!!!
I wish I could make my own clothes but I can’t do more than sew buttons on and hems up – I only learned embroidery at school, not practical sewing. I had several ballgowns and cocktail dresses made for me when I was at college and later when I had to buy suits for work I always had them altered and it made a huge difference, although it also bumped the price up.
I know exactly the sort of hat you’re talking about! Looks like a flowered shower cap. Hideous. The sort of thing people wore to weddings in the 60s and 70s. Sounds like one of Grace’s few fashion faux pas – there definitely wasn’t a picture of that in the exhibition!
I found a picture of her in the hideous dress/cap combo on Google images. Unfortunately it’s not in color, but you can still get the idea. In searching for this, I found another picture of her in another hideous hat. She seemed to have a thing for ugly hats that not even her beautiful face could pull off!!!
Here are the links, they’re each a mile long so hopefully they work!
ttp://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.newbridgesilverware.com/images/products/article/grace-kelly_2_art.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.newbridgesilverware.com/%3Foperation%3Dsection%26sid%3D35&usg=__Q_VTjnwU4YN-d8ooY5hkKbbNscc=&h=400&w=400&sz=29&hl=en&start=199&zoom=1&tbnid=rM9GMu-VntqasM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgrace%2Bkelly%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D584%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C5249&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=629&vpy=155&dur=815&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=110&ty=125&ei=2CuNTN-jGoL4sAPy-rCIBA&oei=ViqNTPDhF4e8sAOa_YidBA&esq=42&page=12&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:199&biw=1020&bih=584
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Grace_Kelly_at_Expo67_-_LAC_e000996509.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grace_Kelly_at_Expo67_-_LAC_e000996509.jpg&usg=__2saJFHTyETEcpVufiMv_UbgiP_M=&h=427&w=640&sz=39&hl=en&start=39&zoom=1&tbnid=XJNPrEJxg3vTNM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=149&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgrace%2Bkelly%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D584%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C1237&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=591&vpy=106&dur=1137&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=193&ty=86&ei=eyyNTPj9NITQsAO5od2vBA&oei=ViqNTPDhF4e8sAOa_YidBA&esq=51&page=3&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:39&biw=1020&bih=584
How tall was Grace, do you know? I just always assumed she looked tall because Rainier was so short.
Tall — slender — small-busted. A woman after my own heart.
Too bad I just don’t have that face. 
I don’t know how tall she was – but she modelled, so I think she must have been at least 5’10” or 5’11”. There was a lovely little film of her modelling evening gowns and she looked very young and fairly statuesque.
Out of curiosity I snooped this out and, according to Grace Kelly online, she was 5’7″. Not very tall for a model. But with that face, she didn’t need height.
As for her bust size — if you look up the Wikipedia article on her, they’ve quoted an amusing anecdote she shared about this, involving Alfred Hitchcock.
According to a biography about her by one of her best friends (I don’t remember the name), she was exactly 5′ 6 1/2″.