Opening 7th November 2015, the exhibition “La Mode Retrouvée, les robes trésors de la Comtesse Greffulhe” held at Palais Galliera will focus on the wardrobe of Élizabeth, Countess Greffulhe, whose beauty and elegance was one of the main inspirations for Marcel Proust and the fashion designers of her time. Countess Greffulhe, née Élisabeth de Caraman-Chimay (1860-1952). She was the cousin of French dandy and poet Robert de Montesquiou and was immortalised for posterity by Marcel Proust as the Duchess of Guermantes in the famous novel “In Search of Lost Time”. Countess Greffulhe was the epitome of elegance, with glorious outfits to match. Her public appearances were highly theatrical, with a sense of their being rare, fleeting and incomparably fascinating, in a cloud of tulle, gauze, chiffon and feathers, or in her kimono jackets, her velvet coats, with her oriental patterns, her shades of gold and silver, pink and green. The outfits were carefully chosen to emphasise her slim waist and her slender figure. On display at the Palais Galliera there are some fifty models bearing the labels of grands couturiers such as Worth, Fortuny, Babani, and Lanvin. There are coats, indoor clothes, day dresses, evening dresses, and also accessories, portraits, photographs and films. Every item is an invitation to go ‘in search of lost fashion’ and to become acquainted with this great figure of Paris Society, whose image was inescapably bound up with her wardrobe.

For more information, please visit Palais Galliera.

Photo: Worth, tea gown, c. 1897. Photo : © Stéphane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet – See more at Palais Galliera.