Princess Zinaida Yusupova in a masquerade dress of the 17th century Boyarina.
Art Crafts

Countess Grefful’s outfit

Otto Wegener. Portrait of Countess Grefful. OK. 1900. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Otto Wegener. Portrait of Countess Grefful. OK. 1900. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.

Luxurious outfits of Proust’s muse Countess Grefful from the collection of the Fashion Museum in Paris

Elisabeth Grefful was the queen of the Parisian salons and conquered those around her with one glance of her deep dark eyes. After the first chance meeting at the reception of Princess Wagram, Marcel Proust wrote: “The whole secret of her beauty lies in the brilliance, in the mystery of her eyes. I have never seen such a beautiful woman.”

Countess Grefful was luxurious always and in everything! Possessing great taste, she dressed with the best fashion designers who created outfits for her as stunning as she was.

Worths house. Lilys evening dress. 1896 Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Worths house. Lilys evening dress. 1896 Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Nadar. Portrait of Countess Grefful. 1896. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Nadar. Portrait of Countess Grefful. 1896. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.

The collection of the Parisian Museum of Urban Fashion contains several outfits of the countess, which reflected her love for art and theatrical effects, which are more characteristic of artists and actors than aristocrats. However, Countess Grefful is definitely not an ordinary aristocrat. She supported many prominent artists and was very eccentric, believing that it was better to look strange, but not corny. She was guided by this rule, ordering amazing and one-of-a-kind outfits, such as a black and white dress with huge lilies, or a cape made from an old Uzbek caftan.

The lily evening gown, created in 1896, is one of the most famous designs of Jean-Philippe Worth, who, after the death of his legendary father Charles Worth, inherited his illustrious fashion house. The dress is made of black velvet with a white satin “Berta” collar and is decorated with contrasting appliqués in the form of huge white satin silk lilies, gold sequins and thread.

Nadar. Portrait of Countess Grefful. 1896.
Nadar. Portrait of Countess Grefful. 1896.

The dress was so beautiful that in the same year the greatest photographer of the second half of the 19th century, Nadar, captured the Countess in it. Thanks to these pictures, we can see how the dress sat on its owner, how favorably it emphasized her thin waist thanks to two stems on the back, making it visually even thinner, and how blooming lilies fall down the dress like a waterfall.

A year earlier, Worth had created another catchy outfit for Greffull – a pseudo-Renaissance-style tea dress made of “burrowed” panne velvet with a bright green background and a large iridescent blue pattern. The fashion designer was a fan of vintage fabrics and therefore chose panne velvet for the Countess’s dress, reminiscent of Italian fabrics of the 15th century. The countess, in turn, was very fond of green, as it went well with her brown hair. In the spirit of Grefful, there was also a bold combination of green and blue colors.

Worths house. Tea dress. 1895. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Worths house. Tea dress. 1895. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Worths house. Tea blue and green dress.
Worths house. Tea blue and green dress.

But more scandalous was the so-called “Byzantine dress” of the countess, ordered in 1904 for the wedding of her daughter Elaine and Duke Armand de Gramont. There are reports that people in the crowd were so amazed by her outfit that they exclaimed: “My God, is this the mother of the bride?”. And after the wedding, the newspapers wrote eulogies for the dress and dubbed the countess the Byzantine queen. Even on the wedding day of her own daughter, Elisabeth Greffull could not help shocking the public.

In the autumn of 1896, the newly-made Emperor Nicholas II, together with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and daughter Olga, went on a big trip to Europe. It was then that Nicholas II met Countess Greffull in Paris and presented her with a luxurious gold-embroidered chapan, created in Bukhan in the 19th century. But the countess immediately gave the caftan to Worth and instructed the fashion designer to remake it into an evening cape, in which she later went out and made a splash. And photographer Otto Wegener captured the Countess in this unique outfit. Throughout her life, Countess Grefful remained a style icon.

Worths house. Byzantine dress. 1904. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Worths house. Byzantine dress. 1904. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris.
Otto Wegener. Portrait of Countess Greffull in a Russian cape. Countess Grefful’s outfit. 1896.
Otto Wegener. Portrait of Countess Greffull in a Russian cape. Countess Grefful’s outfit. 1896.
Worths house. Russian cape. 1896.
Worths house. Russian cape. 1896.
Worths house. Russian cape. 1896. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris. Countess Grefful’s outfit.
Worths house. Russian cape. 1896. Museum of Urban Fashion Paris. Countess Grefful’s outfit.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova in a masquerade dress of the 17th century Boyarina.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova in a masquerade dress of the 17th century Boyarina.
Masquerade dress of Princess Zinaida Yusupova Boyarina of the 17th century. Countess Grefful’s outfit. 1903. State Hermitage.
Masquerade dress of Princess Zinaida Yusupova Boyarina of the 17th century. Countess Grefful’s outfit. 1903. State Hermitage.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova in a masquerade dress of the 17th century Boyarina. 1903.
Princess Zinaida Yusupova in a masquerade dress of the 17th century Boyarina. 1903.
Countess Grefful in Byzantine dress at her daughters wedding. 1904.
Countess Grefful in Byzantine dress at her daughters wedding. 1904.