FINALLY

OLGA IN THE SNOW BY BARON DE MEYER

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tea & Valentino

this week's VALENTINO COUTURE COLLECTION was one of the prettiest collection's of dresses I've seen-
So very pretty. 

“We want to do something which is about fragility and beauty,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri of the Valentino design duo.

When I read Hamish Bowles prose on the collection: Four-leaf clovers or posies of violets were printed over airy organza and shadowed with layers of tulle and lace, like Belle Époque tea gowns- my thoughts immediately went to the William Paxton's painting Tea Leaves.

the Freshness,  delicate Embroidery,  elegant slippers, ruffled high collars of  VALENTINO COUTURE

& a favorite girlhood movie My Fair Lady- a favorite period the Belle Epoque-& darling Eliza Dolittle dresses were designed by Cecil Beaton.

& of Audrey Hepburn herself.

& the women captured by the brush of Jacques Emile Blanche-& the pages of Fantasio & the Gazette du Bon Ton. 

Or the photographs of Baron de Meyer de Meyer photographed many notables of the day and his most beautiful subject- his wife- Olga, Maria Beatrice Olga Alberta Caracciolo.

photo by Maria Robledo Darcey’- Valentino- portrait of Comte Beaumont by Baron de Meyer

The Valentino designers cite Belgian painter Paul Delvaux, the portraits of Marie Antoinette, along with stills from the film Marie Antoinette starring Norma Shearer & the photographs of Deborah Turbeville.
I'll take Tea.

See the full collection and Hamish Bowles review at VOGUE.com here
read Sarah Mower's Preview here & see more photographs of the collection.

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Devastating Beauty XV

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 Marella Agnelli

photographed by Richard Avedon

of Marella Agnelli-Truman Capote said  

"One first thinks: My God, what a beauty she is and Him.*"

photograph by Clifford Coffin

Vogue profiled Roman society figures, including Mrs. Edward Behn and Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castegneto, both in Gabriellesport, in the March 1, 1949, issue (from style.com)

View of Agnelli's NYC apartment with portrait of young
Donna Maria Beatrice Olga Alberta Caracciolo (later de Meyer)

Recently on a post at the Aesthete's Lament, the Aesthete confirmed the link between these two Devastating Beauties. Both Beauties are descended from the Neapolitan Caracciolo family- exactly the connections-I can not say.

Jacques-Emile Blanche

Portrait Of Donna Olga Caracciolo Dei Duchi Di Castelluccio

Portrait of Baroness Olga de Meyer

photographed by her husband Baron de Meyer

* Capote refers Gianni Agnelli- MA's late husband
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