Gloria Guinness (August 27, 1912 – November 9, 1980), born
Gloria Rubio y Alatorre, was a Mexican-born
socialite and writer who was a contributing editor to
Harper's Bazaar from 1963 until 1971. She also was a member of the
International Best Dressed List.
Background
Reportedly born in
Veracruz,
Mexico, she was a daughter of
José Rafael Rubio, a Mexican journalist, and his wife, Dolores Alatorre. As a young woman, she was employed as a nightclub hostess before moving to Germany.
[Etti (Mrs Arpad) Plesch, Horses & Husbands: The Memoirs of Etti Plesch, Dorset: The Dovecote Press, 2007, page 79]Marriages
Her first husband was a German-born resident of Mexico named Scholtens, from whom she was divorced.
[ at 4dw.net]She married on 4 October 1935, in London, England, as her second husband,
Franz-Egon, Count von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (1896-1975); she was his second wife. By him, she had one daughter,
Baroness (born 31 July 1936) and a son,
Baron Franz-Egon Fürstenberg-Hedringen (born 27 July 1939). She also had a stepdaughter from her husband's first marriage, the actress
Betsy von Furstenberg. According to her friend
Etti Plesch, Gloria Rubio Scholtens was introduced to Fürstenberg by her mentor, newspaper heir, diplomat, and art collector
Friedrich Horstmann, who reportedly "dressed her up and presented her at a dinner as a mysterious aristocrat."
Her third husband was
Ahmed Fakhri Bey (1921-1988), a grandson of
King Fuad I of Egypt and a nephew of Princess
Fawzia of Egypt (the first wife of
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran) and King
Farouk I of Egypt.
During her marriage to Fakhri, she also was a mistress of the British ambassador to France,
Duff Cooper. After her divorce, Gloria Fakhri became involved with both
Loel Guinness and
David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty.
Her fourth husband, whom she married in 1951, was Group Capt. Thomas
Loel Guinness, a Member of Parliament (1906-1988) and a member of the extended
Guinness beer family, though his particular branch made its fortune in banking and real estate. Of him, she told
Noel Coward, " I could never sleep with Loel. He farts too much." There is also a long-standing rumor that Gloria Guinness was employed at some point as a spy and that when she married her fourth husband, she had no valid passport and was legally a citizen of no country. The Guinness had homes in ,
Epalinges near
Lausanne,
New York in the
The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel,
Normandy near baron
Guy de Rothschild,
Manalapan, Florida and
Acapulco in
Mexico.
Fashion
She was dressed by ,
Elsa Schiaparelli, at
Christian Dior,
Chanel,
Hubert de Givenchy,
Yves Saint Laurent and shoes by . But she also favored the Spaniard Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey at
Lanvin (clothing). She was one of the first persons to wear the
capri pants by
Emilio Pucci. She was photographed for
Vogue,
Harper's Bazaar and
Woman's Wear Daily by
Cecil Beaton,
Horst P. Horst,
Slim Aarons and Henry Clarke. Artist like René Bouché,
Kenneth Paul Block and Alejo Vidal-Quadras (1919-94) painted her.
She gave dozens of items to the
Victoria & Albert Museum, including pieces by Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972), Christian Dior (1905-57), Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey (1908-1984) and Hubert de Givenchy (b.1927). Amongst these famous names were several lesser known labels, such as Marcelle Chaumont (b.1892; house closed in 1953). Some items by Balenciaga and Schiaparelli were donated to The Costume Institute in New York.
Writing
Guinness wrote frequently for
Harper's Bazaar, most famously asserting, in the magazine's July 1963 issue: "Elegance is in the brain as well as the body and in the soul. Jesus Christ is the only example we have of any one human having possessed all three at the same time." She also wrote an appreciation to the catalogue
The World of Balenciaga held at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York in 1973.
Death
Gloria Guinness died of a
heart attack at her home in
Lausanne,
Switzerland.
See also
- Gloria Guinness evening gown from Marcelle Chaumont
