Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes

Not to sound like a downer, but I had much more fun following fashion back in the 1980s than I do today. Saturday mornings meant watching Elsa Klensch on CNN. Claude Montana was kinda creepy but kinda fascinating at the same time. Italian fashion was IT. My sister and I used to buy Byblos clothing and Laura Biagiotti or Emmanuelle Khanh sunglasses from Loehmann's, back when Loehmann's really carried designer clothes. And, I devoured my mother's issues of W. This was when W was like a newspaper broadsheet (don't you remember that it was divided into sections?) and it was actually interesting to read.

One of my favorite designers from this era was Jacqueline de Ribes. She was part designer, part international socialite, and very French. Maybe it was her lacquered hair and heavy maquillage that intrigued me so. Or perhaps it was her elegant clothing. de Ribes and her ilk were always groomed to perfection. Their approach to dressing wasn't one of casual mixing and matching. Rather, it seemed to be more about the entire ensemble. Clothing and accessories all looked as though they were designed to go with the other.

Although de Ribes is no longer designing clothing, she is still very much a fashion icon today. And if the recent Vanity Fair article about her is any proof, she still holds an allure for many of us. As Yves Saint Laurent once wrote about her, "You would like to learn everything about the glorious secret she possesses." And indeed, I do! Maybe her designs and her houses hold the secret to de Ribes' je ne sais quoi.




A Jacqueline de Ribes black lace and velvet full-length "harlequin" dress with slight train; 1980s.





Cameron Silver and his staff at Decades evidently love de Ribes as much as I. Check out their blog to see all of the de Ribes' creations that they have sold over the last few years. Both of the gowns above, designed by de Ribes in the 1980s, still look stunning today.




A c. 1985 Jacqueline de Ribes cocktail dress from Jennifer Kobrin. I would wear this today in a heartbeat.





Her Paris town house boasts silk and more silk and wonderful tapestries.








In de Ribes' country estate, red cotton draperies, dark green walls, and de Ribes' casual outfit hint at the house's rural setting.


House photos by Horst, Horst: Interiors.