Oldest child of the Count and Countess Jean de Beaumont, she made her entrance into the world on Bastille Day 1929—the 140th anniversary of the insurrection that had cost some of her ancestors their heads. Countess Jacqueline de Ribes, whose originality and elegance established her as one of the most celebrated fashion personas of the twentieth century.  Costume Institute exhibition at Metropolitan Museum of Art will focus on the internationally renowned style icon. The show will feature about sixty ensembles of haute couture and ready-to-wear primarily from de Ribes's personal archive, dating from 1959 to the present.

A muse to haute couture designers, de Ribes had at her disposal their drapers, cutters, and fitters in acknowledgment of their esteem for her taste and originality.