Grace Kelly – Fifties Fashion and Style Icon

There is currently an exhibition running at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London entitled ‘Grace Kelly – a style icon’ which explores and examines Grace Kelly’s undeniable style which has been admired and copied by so many over the years. The exhibition shows women’s dresses from Grace Kelly’s enviable wardrobe alongside photographs of her retro style. There will also be a number of special events at the museum to accompany the exhibition including films screenings, a film and fashion study day, a short course on 1950s haute couture and practical workshops making Grace Kelly-inspired hats and scarfs.

Grace Kelly first became famous as a film star in the fifties, her style changed through out her life as she moved into her role as Princess Grace of Monaco before her tragic and premature death in a car crash in 1982.  As her style and look evolved of the years she did not loose that iconic status that was partly due to her immaculate grooming and sense of style. Her understated but chic look became known as the ‘Grace Kelly look’  was used by many retailers to sell clothes. In Grace’s movie star days, in the fifties, her signature style was Capri pants teamed with a twin set. This retro style of clothing is still really popular today and in particular, this summer retro style Capri pants are back in fashion again.  She was also well known for wearing simple American fashions such as shirt waister dresses and casual shirts and trousers both on and off set.

These Limited Collection cropped stretch trousers by Marks and Spencer’s make a great classic retro style outfit when teamed with a neat round necked jumper in pastel colours.

Grace Kelly wore so many beautiful women’s dresses in real life and her film roles. This simple black Grecian style dress by Debenhams captures something of her elegance and the simplicity of how she dressed.

As Grace Kelly became part of the Monaco Royal family, her clothing became more elaborate with designer Haute Couture gowns and expensive accessories but she always remained true to her simple and elegant signature style. She often wore clothes by Dior which satisfied the need for formality that was important for a member of the royal family but were also modern and fashionable. Her weeding and clothes for the civil and religious ceremonies attracted a huge amount of attention and she looked just as beautiful and glamorous as you would expect a film star princess to look. Last year Vera Wang designed a variation on Grace Kelly’s beautiful wedding dress.

There is even a very popular Hermes handbag named after Grace Kelly, which was designed after she began carrying her  handbag in front of her stomach when she was pregnant. This changed the way that women carried their handbags and retro style handbags carried over the fore arm are still very fashionable. There are so many handbags inspired by the Hermes Kelly bag including this white mock croc grab bag which is part of the Jasper Conran collection at Debenhams.

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