I WANT TO BE A PRINCESS

I wouldn’t mind losing myself in Grace Kelly’s world of Hermes bags, suave leading men and perfectly polished style – and that’s exactly what I intend to do this weekend at the V&A Museum in London. Their costume room is already one of my rainy day haunts and their current exhibition of Grace’s couture gowns is my idea of heaven (Dior! Balenciaga! Givenchy!). Grace, like Audrey, seems to have no modern equal - no one with that singular poise or air of serene mystery. I guess it’s hard to with the paparazzi up in your business, but even so, there’s something about the level of reserve that these women lived with, that makes them even more fascinating. It also thrills me that Alfred Hitchcock called Grace, “a snow covered volcano”, suggesting there were unknown passions bubbling under that crisp exterior – plus she’s rumoured to have had affairs with many of her co-stars including Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. I adore the idea that she may have been a princess of the outside, but a floozy on the inside…