NEW YORK (AP) – When the latest exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute opens this week, celebrating the style of French fashion figure Jacqueline de Ribes, an important guest will be missing: The 86-year-old de Ribes herself.
In the wake of the horrific Paris terror attacks, “she felt it would be unseemly to celebrate,” said the exhibit’s curator, Harold Koda. Despite canceling her trip, however, de Ribes noted in a statement that she hopes the show “will represent the joy associated with the freedom of creation.”
De Ribes, born to aristocratic parents in 1929, was a unique figure in fashion for much of the 20th century, beginning in her ’20s when she was already landing on best-dressed lists. She was famously photographed by Richard Avedon and termed a “swan” by Truman Capote. Not content to simply wear the designs of others, she often had dressmakers make her own designs for her, and in the 1980s she came to New York and launched her own design business, despite the perception that aristocrats like her (she’s a countess) didn’t get involved in commerce.
In a walk through the exhibit earlier this week, Koda explained that it was hard to find early dresses that de Ribes wore, because she gave clothes to charity through the 1960s. Luckily for the museum, she kept many of her clothes from 1975 onward – both her haute couture gowns, and her own designs. Still, Koda said, “It was hard to convince her to do the show, because there’s a side of her that wanted to keep things private.” Koda convinced her, though, by proposing that the show focus on her creative arc, from a little girl who made costumes, to the haute couture client who always had changes made to garments she bought, to the eventual designer she became.
“She was always making things,” Koda says.