Jacqueline,

comtesse Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

de Ribes (born 14 July 1929) is a French aristocrat, designer, fashion icon, businesswoman, producer and philanthropist. She has been a member of the

International Best Dressed List The International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time. The American magazine ''Vanity Fair'' is currently in charge of the List a ...

since 1962.

Early life

Jacqueline Bonnin de La Bonninière de Beaumont was born on 14 July 1929 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Jean de Beaumont Count Jean Bonnin de la Bonninière de Beaumont (13 January 1904 – 12 June 2002), known as Jean de Beaumont, was a French businessman, politician, journalist and sport shooter who competed at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Biography De Beaumont ...

, comte Bonnin de la Bonninière de Beaumont (1904–2002) and Paule de Rivaud de La Raffinière (1908–1999). On 30 January 1948, Jacqueline married Vicomte Édouard de Ribes, a successful banker who subsequently became comte de Ribes and Officer of the Legion of Honour, Croix de guerre 1939-1945. They had two children, Elizabeth and Jean. In 1939, when she was 10, de Ribes's parents sent her and her siblings to

Hendaye Hendaye ( Basque: ''Hendaia'')HENDAIA

Life in fashion and society

In the 1950s and 1960s, before she began designing her own collections, de Ribes employed couture dressmakers to create custom garments for her. In the '70s she began modifying these gowns to create elaborate costumes for fancy-dress balls. In 1955 she employed

Oleg Cassini Oleg Cassini (11 April 1913 – 17 March 2006) was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry. He came to the United States as a young man after starting as a designer in Rome, and quickly got ...

to make her custom gowns based on muslin patterns de Ribes cut on the floor of her attic. She employed a young and then unknown Valentino to create the sketches that accompanied them. For twelve years de Ribes created

ready-to-wear Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...

collections, using marketing techniques to attract famous and elegant international clients such as

Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primeti ...

Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress. She first won attention for her role in '' Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hamm ...

, Barbara Walters, Baroness von Thyssen, Cher, Danielle Steel, Olympia de Rothschild, and

Marie-Hélène de Rothschild Marie-Hélène Naila Stephanie Josina de Rothschild (; November 17, 1927 – March 1, 1996) was a French socialite who became a doyenne of Parisian high-society and was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France. Early life ...

. Her first fashion show was held in the home of Yves Saint Laurent. Her creations have been positively received with fashion journalists Hebe Dorsey of the '' International Herald Tribune'' and

John Fairchild John Russell Fairchild (born April 28, 1943) is a retired American basketball player. Born in Encinitas, California, Fairchild played high school basketball at San Dieguito High School (class of 1961) and college basketball at Brigham Young Univ ...

of ''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion". Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides inf ...

'' singing her praises. De Ribes's collection performed well commercially, and she signed an exclusive three-year contract with Saks Fifth Avenue after her first collection debuted. By 1985, her line was grossing $3 million annually. In 1986, Japanese cosmetics conglomerate Kanebo acquired a minority stake in the company. De Ribes was unhappy with requests to change the proportions and designs of her collections for Japanese markets. After being hospitalized for debilitating back pain, de Ribes underwent hemilaminectomy surgery in 1994 which left her unable to walk for three years. During this time she also began to suffer from celiac disease, and due to these health problems was forced to dissolve her company in 1995. On 14 July 2010, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy decorated her as a Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

at the Elysée Palace. From 19 November 2015 to 21 February 2016, the Costume Institute at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City featured "The Art of Style", an exhibition featuring items from de Ribes's wardrobe. The thematic show showed about sixty ensembles of haute couture and ready-to-wear primarily from her personal archive, dating from 1959 to the present. Also included were her creations for fancy-dress balls, as well as numerous photographs and ephemera, recounting the story of how her interest in fashion developed over decades, from childhood "dress-up" to the epitome of international style.

Theatre artistic director and producer of Cuevas Ballet

In 1958, she produced the first play performed at the new Recamier Theatre, ''When five years will be passed'' by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

, with

Laurent Terzieff Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor. Biography Terzieff was the son of French ceramistMarquis de Cuevas died in 1961, de Ribes became the new manager of the International Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas. With sidekick de Larrain as impresario. Together with Raymundo de Larrian, they produced a version of

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

’s ''Cinderella'' with

Geraldine Chaplin Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. After beginnings in dance and modeling, she turned her attention to act ...

, daughter of Charlie Chaplin. De Ribes worked 15-hour days during her time managing the ballet, eventually dissolving it three years later due to a lack of resources.

Producer, movies, television

Following this experience, she co-produced the initiative for the first French television channel, a film in three episodes from the book by Luigi Barzini "Italians", published by Gallimard in 1966. It was during this trip that Visconti asked her to play the duchesse de Guermantes in his next film ''In Search ...'' based on the novel by Marcel Proust, she agreed. The film was cancelled after Visconti fell sick. In the 1970s, she focused her efforts on volunteering for show production and co-produced Eurovision television shows to benefit

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

Active "mécène" of many museums and institutions

De Ribes chaired the Association of Friends of Foreign Orsay Museum during the Monet exhibition in Tokyo in 1996. She supports several museums and foundations in France. She accepted, at the 2007 Biennale, the chairmanship o
Venetian Heritage

Humanitarian and charitable activities

Jacqueline de Ribes has supported humanitarian causes throughout the world. De Ribes won the prestigious Women of Achievement Award in 1980, alongside

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

Iris Love Iris Cornelia Love (August 1, 1933 – April 17, 2020) was an American classical archaeologist, best known for the rediscovery of the Temple of Aphrodite in Knidos. Early life and education Love was born in New York to Cornelius Love, a dipl ...

, Ann Getty, Dame

Sheila Sherlock Dame Sheila Patricia Violet Sherlock DBE, FRCP FRCPE FRS HFRSE FMGA FCRGA (31 March 1918 – 30 December 2001) was a British physician and medical educator who is considered the major 20th-century contributor to the field of hepatology (the ...

and Jessie M. Rattley, among others.

Ecology

De Ribes is a pioneer in the field of nature conservation and ecology. As early as 1974 in the Balearic Islands, she advocated for the respect of the natural beauty and for the survival of the species in the area. She also orchestrated an international campaign to safeguard the Mediterranean island of Espalmaor, a migratory bird refuge, successfully fighting for the classification of the island as a nature reserve.

Recognition

* Appeared the first time on the

in 1956. * She was named to the

Hall of Fame in 1962. * In 1983, she was voted the "Most Stylish Woman in the World" by '' Town and Country''. * As a designer, she received the Rodeo Drive Award in 1985. * In 1999, French designer

Jean-Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an " enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corset ...

dedicated his collection to Jacqueline de Ribes.

Family

The Countess de Ribes, was born Jacqueline de Beaumont, she is the daughter of Count Jean de BeaumontJean de Beaumont profile
books.google.fr; accessed 30 August 2015. (1904-2002) Commander of the Legion of Honor, vice president of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

, president of the French Academy of Sports and chairman of Cercle de l'Union interalliée, and his wife, the Countess (née Paule Rivaud de La Raffinière; 1908-1999), a woman of letters.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

*
Profile
fashionencyclopedia.com; accessed 30 August 2015.
Profile
vanityfair.com; accessed 30 August 2015. * Pinterest Ribes's Fan
Pinterest

Profile
HuffingtonPost.com; accessed 30 August 2015.

telegraph.co.uk; accessed 30 August 2015.

theredlist.com; accessed 30 August 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ribes, Jacqueline De French socialites French fashion designers French women fashion designers 1929 births Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Living people