Countess Maria Lara Cosima Henckel von Donnersmarck (born May 17, 2003), known as Lara Cosima, is a German-American model, socialite, and social media influencer. In 2023, she was selected to open Le Bal des débutantes in Paris, where she was presented as a debutante. She made her modeling debut in 2024 at Paris Fashion Week.

Early life and family

Henckel von Donnersmarck was born on 17 May 2003 in Florida. Her parents are film director

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (; born 2 May 1973) is an Academy Award-winning German and Austrian film director. He is best known for writing and directing the 2006 dramatic thriller ''Das Leben der Anderen (The L ...

and Christiane Asschenfeldt, a lawyer and the first International Executive Director of

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

. Henckel von Donnersmarck grew up primarily in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She is a member of the House of Henckel von Donnersmarck, an Austro-Hungarian noble family. She is the granddaughter of Count Leo-Ferdinand Henckel von Donnersmarck, a former president of the German division of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

, and Countess Anna-Maria von Berg, a left-wing political activist. Her granduncle, Count Gregor Henckel Donnersmarck, is a Catholic priest and the Abbot Emeritus of

Heiligenkreuz Abbey Heiligenkreuz Abbey (german: Stift Heiligenkreuz; en, Abbey of the Holy Cross) is a Cistercian monastery in the village of Heiligenkreuz in the southern part of the Vienna woods, c. 13 km north-west of Baden in Lower Austria. It is the olde ...

. Her great-grandfather, Count

Friedrich-Carl Henckel von Donnersmarck Count Maria Friedrich-Carl Lazarus Emanuel Franz Johannes Henckel von Donnersmarck (27 May 1905 – 1 September 1989) was a German-Polish philosopher and landowner. His specialized in Scholasticism and studied the works of Thomas Aquinas. In 194 ...

, was a Polish scholastic philosopher and landowner whose castle, Schloss Romolkwitz, was burned down by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

during the

flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II. The German population fled or was expelled from all regions which are currently within ...

. She is a great-great granddaughter of the industrialist Count Edwin Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Career

Since Fall of 2022, Henckel von Donnersmarck has been studying fashion design at

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in Manhattan. She spent two consecutive summers interning for

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...

's haute couture division in Paris. While in Paris, she also enrolled at ESMOD. She amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

by creating edits of her student life in New York and by posting "GRWM" videos in Paris. By December 2023, her videos had been viewed over 100 million times. Henckel von Donnersmarck received both admiration and criticism online for her videos, showcasing a luxurious Parisian life, and was accused by some viewers of being a "

nepo baby Nepo baby, short for nepotism baby, is a term referring to people whose parents have succeeded in similar or related careers. The implication is that, because their parents already had connections to one or more specific industries, the child was a ...

." In 2023 and 2024, false accusations circulated on social media platforms that Henckel von Donnersmarck's family had aided the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In November 2023, Henckel von Donnersmarck was presented to society at Le Bal des débutantes in

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. For the occasion, she was dressed in a gown by

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 corsets, ...

and the Couteulx floral diamond tiara designed by Guillot, made from the jewelry collection of Baron Jacques-Jean Le Couteulx and Baroness Geneviève-Sophie Le Couteulx. She was selected to open the ball, dancing a waltz with her father. She was officially escorted by Archduke Károly Konstantin von Habsburg, son of Archduke

Georg von Habsburg Archduke Georg von HabsburgThe Habsburgs' titles are not recognised anymore in Austria or in Hungary, where he is referred to as Georg Habsburg-Lothringen, which is his legal name (see Austrian nobility and Statute IV of 1947 regarding the abol ...

and Duchess Eilika zu Oldenburg. The ball raised funds for the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital and the

World Central Kitchen World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters. Founded in 2010 by chef José Andrés, the organization prepared food in Haiti following its devastati ...

. In January 2024, Henckel von Donnersmarck walked in a show at Paris Fashion Week.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henckel von Donnersmack, Lara Cosima 2003 births American debutantes American female models American people of Austrian descent American people of German descent American people of Hungarian descent American Roman Catholics American socialites American TikTokers Austrian countesses Countesses in Germany Debutantes of le Bal des débutantes Fashion influencers German female models German people of Austrian descent German Roman Catholics German socialites German TikTokers Lara Cosima Living people Parsons School of Design alumni People from Florida Silesian-German people Social media influencers