Grace Kelly’s clothing goes on display in DC
A TEXTILE conservator named Julia Brennan and her assistant stand in stocking feet and consider a silk shirtdress displayed on a dressmaker's form. The dress, the colour of fresh asparagus, isn't remarkably stylish or even ironically hip. But it's what's on the inside that counts: thousands of hand-sewn stitches, precise and uniform, and a couture label belonging to the house of Christian Dior. This dress, with its slight cowl neck and long sleeves gathered at the wrist, was a favourite silhouette of Princess Grace Kelly. It's just one of the 40 outfits on display at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in the exhibit “Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior,” presented in North America for the first time and on view until Jan 8.
With a wardrobe of high necklines and tweed suits, Dior helped the American actress look the part of European royalty after marrying Prince Rainier III in 1956. The founder of Caring for Textiles, Brennan is on hand with assistant Katherine Hill McIntyre to continue the royal treatment. It will take them, according to Brennan, at least two days to dress one form in Dior. “I want to give the clothing some life,” says Brennan, holding the asparagus dress by its hem as if a gust of wind has swept into the room. “It needs to move.”
Marjorie Merriweather Post, who bought the Hillwood estate in 1955 and lived there until her death in 1973, could be considered an example of American royalty. She inherited the Post cereal company from her father, married into even more fortunes (exes include financier E.F. Hutton and ambassador Joseph E. Davies), and collected objects and artworks. Along with the museum, the property boasts magnificent gardens and a greenhouse filled with orchids and other exotic plants.
If all goes as planned, the Kelly exhibit will give Hillwood some new life, introducing a dash of Hollywood glamour into an estate filled with fussy 18th-century French furnishings and Russian Imperial art. It's an unusual move for the museum, which generally features exhibits that have a strong connection to Post herself.
“I did think it was a little odd that they were having the Grace Kelly and Dior show at Hillwood,” says Victoria Wodarcyk, a Hillwood member and Post aficionado. (Members pay $60 per year for free admission to the museum and gardens, invitations to members-only events and a discount in the museum shop.) But Wodarcyk recognizes that Post was just one collector, and "if they only showed the same type of exhibition all the time, they would run out of things to show.” Plus, she says, “I would imagine it was a bit of a coup to get this exhibit so it's probably good for the museum, bringing in a wider audience and more visitors and members.”
For exhibit curator Megan Martinelli, drawing the connection between Kelly and Post required a bit of creative storytelling. “Grace was a generation younger," says Martinelli, explaining that she was unable to find evidence that the two women ran in the same circles. Post's daughter, Hollywood actress Dina Merrill, may have met Kelly, but that's up for debate. Also, Post didn't wear Dior, preferring instead New-York based designers like Madame Frances and Thurn.
How do other Hillwood loyalists feel about the exhibit?
Benedict Hasting, a longtime member of Hillwood and himself a serious collector of Russian Imperial objects, attended the members-only preview of the exhibit and overheard what he calls an "older group" standing around complaining. "I just kind of put my ear in and listened," he recalls. Hasting is not one to name names, but he says those in opposition used words like “shock” and “disdain” to describe their feelings. For his part, Hasting thinks the show is fabulous.e."
How do other Hillwood loyalists feel about the exhibit? Benedict Hasting, a longtime member of Hillwood and himself a serious collector of Russian Imperial objects, attended the members-only preview of the exhibit and overhead what he calls an “older group" standing around complaining. “I just kind of put my ear in and listened,” he recalls. Hasting is not one to name names, but he says those in opposition used words like “shock” and “disdain” to describe their feelings. For his part, Hasting thinks the show is fabulous.
Perhaps Wilfried Zeisler, Hillwood's chief curator, holds claim to establishing the strongest link between Hillwood and Monaco. The exhibition, he says, is the result of a continuing collaboration with the Prince's Palace of Monaco, where Grace Kelly's wardrobe is preserved. “We started our collaboration with the palace a few years ago when we prepared for Hillwood's 2018 ‘Fabergé Rediscovered' exhibition,” says Zeisler. “It was for that exhibit for which we borrowed the Fabergé Imperial Easter egg from the prince's collection.”
With a week to go before showtime, Zeisler has come for his first look at the full exhibit. Standing before a silk gazar ruffled cape and evening gown, both the colour of Bazooka bubble gum, Zeisler takes it all in, sweeping his gaze around the room. "For a long time, it was an exhibition of ghosts,” he says, referring to a space previously dominated by rolling racks of garment bags.
Today, just as Brennan had hoped, the forms have come alive, a battalion dressed in tweed day suits and bell-sleeved chiffon party frocks. The asparagus shirtdress, now paired with a matching quilted green coat, stands elegantly in the back row of a display called “Official Outings and Charitable Events.”
According to Elizabeth Axelson, Hillwood's marketing, communicationsandmembership manager, there were almost 1,000 visitors during “Princess in Dior's” opening weekend in June - a hefty increase over attendance on typical days. The previous major fashion exhibit, displaying Post's Roaring Twenties outfits, was also a hit. Both exhibitions are solid evidence that people appreciate the nobility of great fashion, no matter who is wearing it. — The Washington Post