Countess Jacqueline de Ribes Gets Her Own Costume Institute Exhibit
Countess Jacqueline de Ribes Gets Her Own Costume Institute Exhibit at the Met
It's very rare for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to mount an exhibition around a single individual — only Jackie Kennedy (in 2001), Iris Apfel (in 2005) and Nan Kempner (in 2006) have nabbed that particular honor. On Thursday, the Institute will open its fourth exhibit in this line: "Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style."
Curator in Charge Harold Koda has been working on the exhibit for the past eight years, after several friends, including the late designer Oscar de la Renta, told Koda about the French aristocrat and designer Countess Jacqueline de Ribes's impressive archive of clothing. "She showed us a sampling of what she had, [Curator] Andrew [Bolton] and I, and what was fascinating for me was that I immediately responded, and Andrew, when he saw the '80s things, he just didn't understand what they were," Koda says. "Because it was New Romantics, Alexander McQueen starting up, John Galliano — that's [Andrew's] idea of the '80s. But my idea of the '80s in New York was that first pre-crash exuberance, and I thought, 'God, this is so incredible because it's a kind of window into that moment and we don't have this anymore.'"
The heyday of the impeccably dressed society woman, with her balls and black tie events every night, is long gone. But many of those "women of style," as Koda calls them, didn't keep their clothes. And few had the influence or talent to collaborate with couture ateliers, as de Ribes often did, or go on to start their own labels — all of which made her a ripe candidate for an exhibit.
Countess Jacqueline de Ribes was born in 1929 in Paris to aristocratic parents, and demonstrated an early knack for design — an image in the exhibition shows her and her sister wearing hula skirts made out of potato sacks. She married E?douard, Vicomte de Ribes, at age 19 and already had a reputation for style by the time Richard Avedon photographed her in 1955. (The photograph is immortalized in Truman Capote's book of "swans," the writer's nickname for his beautiful female friends.) "She has a perfect nose. I feel sorry for the near-beauties with small noses," said Avedon.
In the '50s and '60s, de Ribes employed a dressmaker to make original designs; she also bought pieces from Guy Laroche, Jean Desse?s, Marc Bohan and Yves Saint Laurent (both at Dior and his eponymous label). Even before she started modifying their designs, a privilege for haute couture customers, de Ribes experimented in ways that were shocking then: layering a turtleneck under a dress, for example, or mixing different designers in a single look. For a White Ball in 1969, Bohan allowed the Dior atelier to produce an ivory silk crepe fringed dress (on the left in the image above) that she conceived for the occasion, going way beyond the typical couture client experience.
The most striking room in the exhibition features elaborate gowns de Ribes wore to three masked balls in the '60s and '70s, which she told Koda was her most creative work. For these costume events, de Ribes "cannibalized couture gowns" and modified them with inexpensive fabrics and elaborate embroideries. The dress she wore to Alexis de Rede?’s Bal Oriental in 1969 (see image below) was described in Vogue at the time as "a Napoleon III version of Turquerie" and made by copying couture from her closet — a Dior gown, a Guy Laroche evening coat and a Jean Desse?s dress. "Imagine how a Victorian would picture a Mongol princess. That's my costume," she said.
It wasn't until 1982 that de Ribes decided to launch her own collection, which her husband said she had to finance herself, and her debut runway show managed to draw designers Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Valentino and WWD editor John Fairchild. Koda describes the signature element of her design as a "360-degree" approach. "What is a beautiful neckline, what is it when she's leaving a room — is she still interesting? So she really is concerned about the back," he says. The collection was well-received; she signed an exclusive three-year contract with Saks Fifth Avenue and it grossed $3 million annually by 1985, according to Vanity Fair. But the business suffered when a Japanese cosmetics conglomerate bought a minority stake in 1986, and as de Ribes's health declined in the late '80s and '90s.
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