Thursday, October 31, 2013

Know Your Royals: Grace, Caroline, and the Other Princesses of Monaco

To what can we attribute our enduring fascination with the royal family of Monaco? Just this week, we have seen a lavish screening sponsored by Ralph Lauren of the 1955 To Catch a Thief, starring the luminous Grace Kelly, radiant in Edith Head’s confections; tonight the Princess Grace Foundation holds its annual awards gala; next spring, Nicole Kidman will star in Grace of Monaco, a much anticipated biopic.

Why this ongoing romance with the Grimaldi brood? Well, for one thing, despite the European pedigree, the fairy-tale castles, the whole notion of a “principality,” this family’s modern lineage—okay, half of it at least—is all-American, giving rise to the notion that you, too, can grow up in Missoula or Maspeth—or in Grace’s case, the East Falls area of Philadelphia—and end up with a serious title. Someone who was actually rejected from Bennington College supposedly because her math scores were too low (feel better about your academic career now?) ended up as one of the most admired women in the universe, married to a genuine royal (even if he came from a country of less than one square mile that you previously had never heard of). It’s the original Kate Middleton story, except that the Duchess of Cambridge never worked with Alfred Hitchcock or costarred with Jimmy Stewart or William Holden.

No wonder that more than a half century after her magical nuptials—it is estimated that 30 million people watched the ceremony on television—we still have an avid (almost embarrassing!) fascination with Grace, her illustrious progeny, and their fashionable spouses.

Above, an informal family tree, and a look at the Grimaldi women’s unique and always compelling style.

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