Pattern Matching with Grace Kelly

Just learned of the Victoria & Albert Museum's plans for a show on Grace Kelly's wardrobe next April (nice Daily Mail article on it here). CAN NOT WAIT, but in the meantime was most intrigued by the tidbit that the dress Kelly wore to meet Rainier for the first time was not couture, but in fact whipped up from a McCall's Easy Sew pattern.

It wasn't difficult to find Michou Simon's photos (via Paris Match) of their first encounter (and doesn't Rainier look pleased as punch), but digging out the pattern itself yielded only half-satisfactory results. The one below, with its dropped bodice, seems the best match, absent the long sleeves.



Will the exhibition reveal whether or not McCalls 3151 is indeed the model? Time will tell. But it was fun digging around the internet archives (especially So Vintage Patterns and the Vintage Patterns Pool at Flickr) to find the best match.

How to Wear It: Espadrilles

They pass in and out of fashionability every few years--otherwise these canvas and ropework slip-ons are the footgear du choix of southern Mediterranean residents who wear them casually: at the cafe sipping Pernod, playing boules, tending their rose garden, or knocking out a watercolor of the yacht-ridden view from the terrace.

The question: it is possible to look chic in espadrilles?

Here's a little lady who manages, unsurprisingly, to pull it off . . . Ranier, down in ultra-Med Monaco, must have taken one look and thought, she will do nicely.

Top Flora

As lovers of Hermès scarves and Ossie Clark/Celia Birtwell vintage dresses know, patterns can have as significant a history in fashion as the garments themselves. One of my favorite pattern stories is that of Flora, Gucci's now-emblematic array of delicate garden blooms scattered across a white (or less commonly, black) ground.

How it came about: as the story goes (many thanks to the delightful scarf-specialty blog Musings on things That Matter to Me), decades back Grace Kelly rushed into a Gucci shop in search of a floral scarf as a wedding present for a friend. The house did not make any at the time. Rodolfo Gucci went on to commission renowned illustrator Vittorio Accornero to design a sublime botanical in honor of Grace, who had then become Princess of Monaco.

Here's a wonderful photo of her daughter, Caroline, wearing the pattern created for her mother. (well done American Vogue picture editors!)

With 37 different colors and a garden's worth of delicately rendered blooms, the scarf became an enduring favorite. When Frida Giannini became Gucci's head designer in 2002, she revived the pattern on bags, shoes, and dresses.

Vintage Flora scarves are still highly affordable on eBay. Here's a lovely example, with a navy border, that I was able to find a few months ago for about £35 ($51).