fashion diary: Daphne Guiness (exhibition at the museum at FIT )

fashion diary: Daphne Guiness (exhibition at the museum at FIT ): From her signature platinum-and-black striped hair to her notorious eight-inch platform shoes, her to-die-for couture collection and amazing...

Daphne Guiness (exhibition at the museum at FIT )

From her signature platinum-and-black striped hair to her notorious eight-inch platform shoes, her to-die-for couture collection and amazing diamond jewelry, Daphne Guinness is the very image of rarified personal style. “Who is this woman, what form of rara avis bedecked in diamonds and plumes?” asked Guy Trebay.

“Daphne is one of – if not the – most stylish women living,” says fashion designer Tom Ford, who asked her to model in his show. The world has many beautiful, fashionable socialites and celebrities, but Daphne is in a class of her own. “Life is a stage for Daphne,” says the couturier Valentino. “Funerals or balls, she always makes a performance.”

Why do an exhibition on Daphne Guinness? Because she is fearless about wearing the most extreme clothes and shoes, but is no mere clothes horse. Because she is a serious collector of couture, who is also a creative force in her own right. Because she is an extraordinary individual whose perspective on fashion is unique and important.
The Honorable Daphne Suzanne Diana Joan Guinness was born in 1967, the daughter of brewery heir, Jonathan Guinness, Lord Moyne, and French beauty, Suzanne Lisney.  Her paternal grandmother was Diana Mitford, one of the legendary Mitford sisters. In 1987, at the age of nineteen, Daphne married Spyros Niarchos. After her divorce in 1999, Daphne resumed her maiden name, and over the past decade has emerged on the world’s stage an extraordinary fashion creature.
We tend to think of fashion as being created by fashion designers. Yet designers do not create in isolation.  Amanda Harlech, Karl Lagerfeld’s aide-de-camp and muse, has said that “Karl is continually inspired by [Daphne].” Moreover, although designers propose new looks, in order for something to become fashionable, to move off the runway and into real life, it has to be taken up by various fashion insiders, including editors, photographers, retailers, and fashion trendsetters.