Countess Jacqueline de Ribes is Focus of the Met's Fall Fashion Exhibition

As the oldest child of the Count and Countess Jean de Beaumont, Countess Jacqueline de Ribes grew up with the fortune her father had built for the Rivaud Group, which, founded in 1910, held interests in rubber, banana, and palm-oil plantations in Africa, Indonesia, and Indochina.

Lanky and graceful, de Ribes would go on to be compared by the designer Yves Saint Laurent to “an ivory unicorn,” be referred by the Prince Nicolas Dadeshkeliani as “the de Gaulle of fashion,” and be dubbed by Valentino as “The Last Queen of Paris.” In 1999, Jean Paul Gaultier even dedicated his haute couture collection to her by titling it “Divine Jacqueline.”

But beyond having the glacial beauty and attractiveness of a swan, “she was actually negotiating in the world, working to be in business all her life. Even when she was newly a mother, she always had a job,” said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, which is staging Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style to celebrate the fashion icon from November 19 through February 21, 2016.

De Ribes, who as a child had wanted to be a ballerina, started her associations with the fashion world when, shortly after World War II, her uncle, Count Étienne de Beaumont, took her as an adolescent to see his friend Christian Dior shortly after the designer opened his couture salon, in 1947.

After marrying the Vicomte Édouard de Ribes at the age of 19, she nurtured her passions by quietly working for fashion designers Oleg Cassini and Emilio Pucci. (The traditions of her in-laws had precluded her from having a career.)

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Photographed by Richard Avedon and written about by Truman Capote, who both waxed lyrical about her swan-like qualities, de Ribes first landed on the International Best-Dressed List in 1956, when she only had a handful of couture dresses, with the majority of her wardrobe made by a dressmaker but designed herself. By 1962, she was inducted into the International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame. While continuing to be a muse to Paris’ finest couturiers, de Ribes launched her own label in 1982, which continued until 1995.

Now, de Ribes owns at least 1,000 pieces of haute couture and her own designs. For the show, Koda spent six months personally combing through that collection and, together with de Ribes, who is now 85, has come up with 60 pieces that best convey how the Countess has solidified her status as fashion royalty.

They comprise ensembles from the who’s who of fashion, including Giorgio Armani, Pierre Balmain, Bill Blass, Marc Bohan for House of Dior, Roberto Cavalli, John Galliano, Madame Grès, Valentino Garavani, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent, and Emanuel Ungaro, that date from 1959 through to the present.

While the exhibition will focus on her style and taste, material from her personal archives will also illustrate the variety of her professional life, including her roles as television producer, interior designer, architect, and organizer of international charity events.

“A close study of de Ribes’ life of creative expression yields illuminating insights into her strategies of style,” added Koda. “Her approach to dress as a statement of individuality can be seen as a kind of performance art. When she established her own fashion house, her friend Yves Saint Laurent gave his blessing to the venture as a welcome projection of her elegance.”

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