Several years ago, at the Dior couture show, I was sitting next to Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera, The Fashion Museum of the City of Paris. When he told me that he was organizing an exhibition on the Countess Greffulhe, I knew that I had to bring it to New York. The Countess Greffulhe was a true fashion icon and one of the inspirations for Marcel Proust’s immortal fictional character, Oriane, the Duchesse de Guermantes. My second book, Paris Fashion (1988) had a chapter on “Proust’s World of Fashion,” but I never dreamed that these clothes still existed. They are truly extraordinary!

Proust’s Muse, the Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC and is based on the exhibition, La Mode retrouvée: Les robes trésors de la comtesse Greffulhe.

This blog runs concurrently with the exhibition and will include unique object posts, exhibition videos, press, and other exhibition related material that will introduce you to the Countess Greffulhe and the exhibition Proust’s Muse, the Countess Greffulhe.

— Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT

Proust's Muse, the Countess Greffulhe Exhibition Trailer
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