clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

See the Fabulous Wardrobe of the French Countess Who Inspired Marcel Proust

Photo: The Museum at FIT

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Just as Paris Fashion Week will be kicking off thousands of miles away this coming fall, New York City will be getting its own dose of French fashion courtesy of the Museum at FIT. Its upcoming exhibit will explore the fashion of novelist Marcel Proust's muse, Countess Elisabeth Greffulhe — imagine Daphne Guinness, but set in early 20th-century Paris. She served as the inspiration to Oriane, the Duchess de Guermantes, of In Search of Lost Times.

Proust's Muse, The Countess Greffulhe will be the first of several exhibitions at the museum focusing on French fashion — right after this comes Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968 in February, but we'll have to wait until 2019 to see the grand-sounding Paris, Capital of Fashion.

At Proust's Muse (which was previously on display in Paris), visitors to the free museum will see 28 garments from the sartorial Countess's 1920s-wardrobe by designers like Nina Ricci and Jeanne Lanvin, as well as dozens of accessories (including the red velvet high-heels that are a throwback to one of the most famous scenes in In Search of Lost Times). Bringing it to modern times, the museum had cool-kid designer Rick Owens create an ensemble inspired by the Countess that'll also be on display.

Proust's Muse, The Countess Greffulhe will open on September 23rd and run through January 7th, 2017.

The Museum at FIT

227 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001, USA