Gloria Guinness

Gloria Guinness (born Gloria Rubio Alatorre; August 27, 1912^[2] – November 9, 1980)^[3] was a socialite and fashion icon of the Twentieth Century, as well as a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar from 1963 until 1971. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964.^[4][5]

Early life

Born in Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico, she was a daughter of José Rafael Rubio Torres (1880-1916),^[6] a journalist, and his wife, Maria Luisa Dolores Alatorre Diaz (b. 1882).^[1][6][7]

As a young woman, she was employed as a nightclub hostess.^[8]

Marriages

Gloria Rubio was married four times, her spouses being:

(1) Jacobus H. Scholtens, a Dutch sugar-factory superintendent^{[citation needed]}, whom she married in 1933 and from whom she was later divorced.^[8][9]

(2) Franz-Egon Maria Meinhard Engelbert Pius Aloysius Kaspar Ferdinand Dietrich, third Graf von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896–1975), whom she married on October 4, 1935, in Kensington, London, England;^[10] she was his second wife and had a stepdaughter from her husband's first marriage, the actress Betsy von Furstenberg. By him, she had two children:

• Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (July 31, 1936—January 20, 2012). She married her stepbrother, Patrick Benjamin Guinness, on 22 October 1955 and after his death in an automobile accident in 1965, she hoped to marry the Aga Khan IV, her late husband's half-brother.^[11]

1. Maria Alexandra (born 1956) married Foulques, Count de Quatrebarbes (born 1948) in 1979, and, after their divorce, Neville Cook.
2. Loel Patrick (born 1957).
3. Victoria Christina (born 1960) married Philip Niarchos in 1984, son of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.

• Franz-Egon Engelbert Raphael Christophorus Hubertus, Freiherr von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (born July 27, 1939 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf).^[12] He married Agneta Sundby (born April 12, 1943), a Swedish model on August 20, 1967, in Visnum church, Visnum, Sweden.^[13] After their divorce, he married Adelina Cuberyan.

(3) Ahmad-Abu-El-Fotouh Fakhry (1921–1998), whom she married in 1946 and divorced in 1949. The only child of Princess Fawkia of Egypt, Countess Wladimir d’Adix-Dellmensingen, and her first husband, Mahmud Fakhry Pasha, he was a grandson of King Fuad I of Egypt and a nephew of Princess Fawzia of Egypt (the first wife of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran) and of King Farouk I of Egypt.^[14]

(4) Group Captain Thomas Loel Guinness, a Member of Parliament (1906–1988) and a member of the extended Guinness beer family, though his particular branch made its fortune in banking and real estate. They married on April 7, 1951, in Antibes. By this marriage she had three stepchildren: Patrick Benjamin Guinness (1931-1965); William Loel Seymour Guinness (born 1939), and Belinda "Lindy" Guinness (born 1941, married the 5th and last Marquess of Dufferin and Ava).

Among her lovers was David Beattie, 2nd Earl Beattie, and the British ambassador to France Duff Cooper,^[15] who wrote of her, "I have never loved anybody physically so much or been so supremely satisfied".^[16]

Spy?

There is a long-standing rumor that Gloria Guinness was employed at some point as a spy and that when she married her fourth husband, she had no valid passport and was legally a citizen of no country. This rumor is to a certain degree borne out by her appearance in a series of supposedly nonfiction books written by Aline, Countess of Romanones, who knew her during World War Two and was a friend, fellow spy (originally on opposite sides, the Countess was still an American citizen during the war, and an employee of the OSS), and sometime adversary of Gloria, who was by this point an almost legendary character, the glamorous "Countess von Fürstenberg" who maintained friendships with important Nazis, including Hermann Göring and even Adolf Hitler himself, ^{[citation needed]} and lived in neutral Madrid throughout the latter days of the Second World War as an espionage agent for the Axis.^[17]

Six homes around the world

The Guinnesses had an apartment in Manhattan's Waldorf Towers, an 18th-century farmhouse called Villa Zanroc in Epalinges near Lausanne (with a bowling alley in the basement), a 350-ton yacht that plied the Mediterranean in the summer, a seven-story house on Avenue Matignon in Paris, decorated by Georges Geffroy (1903–1971), a stud farm in Normandy, Haras de Piencourt near Guy de Rothschild, and a mansion near Palm Beach at Lake Worth, Florida.^[18][19][20] The Florida property, which is divided by U.S. Highway A1A, faces the lake on one side and the beach on the other; the two halves are connected by a specially built tunnel under the highway that Mrs. Guinness had decorated with furniture and screens painted by a young French artist she was interested in. In addition, the Guinnesses owned a house in Acapulco, Mexico,^[21] designed by the Mexican architect Marco Antonio Aldaco.

They also kept three aircraft: an Avro Commander for short trips around Europe, a small jet, and a helicopter for Loel Guinness's hops between the Lake Worth house and the Palm Beach golf course.

Fashion

She was dressed by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Marc Bohan at Christian Dior, Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Valentino Garavani, Halston and shoes by Roger Vivier. But she also favored the Spaniard Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey at Lanvin (clothing). She was one of the first persons to wear the capri pants by Emilio Pucci. She was photographed for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Woman's Wear Daily by Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, John Rawlings, Toni Frissell, Horst P. Horst, Slim Aarons and Henry Clarke. Artist like René Bouché, Kenneth Paul Block and Alejo Vidal-Quadras (1919–94) painted her. She appeared on the International Best Dressed List from 1959 through 1963. The year after she was elevated into its Hall of Fame.

Donations

She gave an enormous number of items to Victoria & Albert Museum from Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, André Courrèges, Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey at Lanvin (clothing), Hubert de Givenchy, Hellstern and Jeanne Lafaurie, proving that she spread her commissions amongst many different couturiers.

Among the seventeen outfits, twelve hats and pairs of shoes that she donated were a 1948 Balenciaga evening gown of organdie with flock flowers, an evening gown from 1965, a 1949 hand-painted evening gown by Marcelle Chaumont (b. 1892, house closed in 1953), and a 1950s evening gown by Jeanne Lafaurie, the only dress by that designer in the collection of Victoria & Albert Museum.^[22][23][24]

Some items by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Elsa Schiaparelli were donated to The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Writing

Guinness wrote frequently for Harper's Bazaar, most famously asserting, in the magazine's July, 1963, issue: "Elegance is in the brain as well as the body and in the soul. Jesus Christ is the only example we have of any one human having possessed all three at the same time." She also wrote an appreciation to the catalogue The World of Balenciaga held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1973.

Death

Gloria Guinness died of a heart attack at her home, Villa Zanroc in Epalinges, Switzerland at the age of 68.

See also

• Fürstenberg (baronial family)
• Guinness family
• Style - Beauty Icon: Gloria Guinness
• Voguepedia - Personalities - Gloria Guinness
• Vanity Fair - The Best Dressed Woman of All Time: Gloria Guinness

Notes

References

• No author. Thomas L.E.B. Guinness Weds, The New York Times, April 8, 1951.
• Ballard, Bettina, In My Fashion, New York: David McKay, 1960.
• Donovan, Carrie, Mrs. Guinness: Rare Fashion Leader; Couturiers Are Guided by Her Personal Style Flair Has Plan for Dressing for Four Homes in Varied Locales, The New York Times, December 5, 1961.
• No author. The Rich: Having a Marvelous Time, Time, January 26, 1962.
• Guinness, Gloria, Gloria On Elegance, Harper's Bazaar, July 1963.
• Guinness, Gloria, Gloria Guinness, New York: Hearst, 1966.
• Bender, Marylin, The Beautiful People, New York: Coward-McCann, 1967.
• Nemy, Enid, Venice Draws International Set; Masked Ball to Aid City's Craftsmen Gala to Be in Palace on the Grand Canal, The New York Times, September 4, 1967.
• Bender, Marylin, A Prize for Mrs. Guinness, The New York Times, November 2, 1967.
• Klemesrud, Judy, They Expected a Snob, They Heard a Comedian, The New York Times, December 3, 1970.
• Ginsburg, Madeleine, Fashion: an anthology by Cecil Beaton, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971.
• No author. Gloria Guinness, 67, Trend-Setter In Fashion and Hospitality, Dead, The New York Times, November 10, 1980.
• Payn, Graham and Sheridan Morley, editors, The Noel Coward diaries, Londong: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.
• Jouve, Marie-Andree and Jacqueline Demornex, editors, Balenciaga, Paris: Editions du Regard, 1988.
• Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Freiherrliche Häuser, Band XV, Seite 135-177, Band 69 der Gesamtreihe, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1989.
• Join-Dieterle, Catherine, Train, Susan and Lepicard, Marie-Jose, Givenchy - 40 Ans de Creation, Paris: Paris-Musees, 1991.
• Tapert, Annette & Edkins, Diana, The Power of Style - The Women Who Defined The Art of Living Well, Crown Publishers, New York, 1994.
• Jouve, Marie-Andrée, Fashion Memoir - Balenciaga, London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
• Plimpton, George, Truman Capote, In which various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors recall his Turbulent Career, New York: Nan A. Talese, 1997.
• Mohrt, Françoise, Le style Givenchy, New York: Editions Assouline, 1998.
• Mower, Sarah, Oscar De La Renta, New York: Assouline, 2002.
• Mosley, Charles, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, p. 1695.
• Vickers, Hugo, The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970–1980, New York: Knopf, 2003.
• Horyn, Cathy, On the Block, Grande Dame Décor, The New York Times, March 13, 2003.
• Zilkha, Bettina, Ultimate Style-The Best Of The Best Dressed List, New York: Assouline, 2004.
• Wilcox, Clarie, The Golden Age of Couture - Paris and London 1947-57, London: V&A Publications, 2007.
• Werle, Simone, Fashionista : A Century of Style Icons, Prestel Publishing, 2009.
• Killen, Mary, Make Mine A Guinness, Tatler, November 2009.
• Fiori, Pamela, The Glory of Gloria Guinness, Harper's Bazaar, October 2010, pp. 273–280.