Farewell to Jacqueline de Ribes, the last queen of Paris

The countess, an absolute icon of Parisian elegance and a key figure in the history of 20th-century fashion, passed away on 30 December at the age of 96.

Born in 1929 as Jacqueline Bonnin de La Bonninière de Beaumont, she belonged to an old French high society family. The daughter of an aristocratic banker and a painter and translator, she grew up surrounded by books, art and conversations that would shape her personality and style from a very young age. However, it was her uncle who introduced her to the artistic circles of Paris, and at the age of 16 she met Christian Dior, at which point her life changed forever.

She soon became the muse, friend and inspiration of great designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino Garavani and Pierre Balmain, who considered her ‘the last queen of Paris’, a title that perfectly summed up her magnetic presence and innate elegance. Jacqueline de Ribes was pure style, which led her to become part of the select group of Swans immortalised by Truman Capote and to be photographed by legends such as Richard Avedon.

In 2015, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York dedicated the exhibition “Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style” to her, which attracted nearly 195,000 visitors and confirmed her status as an iconic and historic figure of the contemporary era.

Her wardrobe was, in itself, a haute couture archive: pieces by Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan for Dior, Madame Grès, Bill Blass, Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultier… Aware of this, everything was donated to the Palais Galliera in Paris. Beyond fashion, Jacqueline had an intense public and philanthropic life: in 2013, she became honorary president of the Friends of the Musée d’Orsay and was actively involved in theatre and film production. She also supported causes such as UNICEF and the League Against Cancer.