Grace

What do you think of when you hear the name Grace Kelly?  Style.  Elegance.  Timeless.  A true Lady.  I want to be Grace Kelly when I grow up.

May 2010 Vanity Fair...I can't wait for it to arrive.

The cover of the Victoria & Albert exhibition’s catalogue features Kelly in an Oleg Cassini dress that she wore at a shoot for Cosmopolitan. Before she met Prince Rainier, Kelly was briefly engaged to Cassini, who helped develop the flattering cuts and styles that would come to be known as her style.

She is positively regal. 

Rear Window is my favorite Grace Kelly movie.  I have been enthralled with that little suitcase, and all of the things that she pulled out of it, since I was a young child.  Le sigh, an uber-stylish New York magazine editor.  Before becoming a Real! princess, she had only made 11 movies! Now, in 2010, she is a cover girl once again.

The Country-Club Girl

When Kelly and Monaco’s Prince Rainier III announced their engagement at the Philadelphia Country Club, in January 1956, many of Kelly’s friends were surprised: the two had only known each other for a few months. From Snap/Rex Features/courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Kelly stunned once again in classic lace, this time at the celebration of her civil marriage to Rainier. The main ceremony, the next day, would feature Kelly in a truly incredible full wedding gown of lace and silk faille. Her entire trousseau was designed and sewn by the costume masters at MGM.

Pomp & Polish

One icon begets another: Kelly’s frequent use of Hermès’s haut à courroies bag—most notably to shield her first pregnancy from the paparazzi—led the leather purse to be dubbed the “Kelly” bag, a tag that remains today. And her sunglasses are still en vogue; in the summertime, downtown Manhattan is brimming with those frames.  Look at the details on her dress!  Exquisite!

Presidential Company

What a meeting of style and substance! The Prince and Princess took a little lunch at the White House in 1961, the same year Kelly was inducted into the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame and Jacqueline Kennedy debuted on the annual list.

Amazing Grace

Grace Kelly holding her Oscar the night she won best actress for The Country Girl at the 27th Annual Academy Awards, in 1955. Kelly’s performance as the long-suffering wife of an alcoholic (Bing Crosby) beat out the category’s front-runner, Judy Garland, for A Star Is Born.