Mona von Bismarck. Ph. Cecil Beaton. Vogue, October 1, 1936.
.
Countess Mona Bismarck (February 5, 1897 – July 10, 1983) was an American socialite and fashion icon. She married five times and was celebrated by Cecil Beaton and Salvador Dalí, satirized by Truman Capote in Answered Prayers, and memorialized in Cole Porter’s Red, Hot and Blue! In 1933, she was voted “the best-dressed woman in the world” by Coco Chanel and other top designers, and she developed a close friendship with Cristóbal Balenciaga in her 30 years as a client and patron.
.Short Biography
In January 1955 Mona married her “secretary” Albrecht Edzard Heinrich Karl, Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1903-1970), an “interior decorator” of an aristocratic sort and the son of Herbert von Bismarck and grandson of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. First the civil marriage in New Jersey and a year later the religious marriage in Rome. Mona became Countess von Bismarck.
Countess von Bismarck outdid heiress Barbara Hutton when she bought new 88 outfits, following this with a total of 140 items over the next two years.
Ever energetic, for her own enjoyment, Mona read, swam, did needlework, wrote a book, and cultivated prize tulips. She kept dogs, her favorite being Mickey, a lap mutt.
Eddie von Bismarck died in 1966. Mona now resident in Capri and cut herself off from most of her friends.
Count and Countess von Bismarck
Mona’s old friend Cecil Beaton visited her at Capri and was shocked to find that all traces of her famous beauty had left her. “She is now suddenly a wreck. Her hair, once white and crisp and a foil to her aquamarine eyes, is now a little dried frizz, and she has painted a grotesque mask on the remains of what was once such a noble-hewn face, the lips enlarged like a clown, the eyebrows penciled with thick black grease paint, the flesh down to the pale lashes coated with turquoise… Oh, my heart broke for her.”
Cecil Beaton
.
.
. Hubert de Givenchy’s comments on Countess Mona von BismarckOn one occasion Monsieur de Givenchy was reported to have made the following comments about his favorite client Countess Mona von Bismarck, ” She was splendid as could be seen in the portrait that Dali had painted of her, and had seduced five husbands. She was mad about pearls and brought them in kilos during cruises in the China Sea and the ports of Japan. She had two lifts of different speeds installed in her apartment in Ave de New York; the faster one was for the domestics so that they could reach the landing before her to open the door.”
.
.
.
.
Exhibition of Mona’s wardrobe curated by Hubert de Givenchy
.
Book
Kentucky Countess: Mona Bismarck in Art & Fashion
agnautacouture.com 
fantastic post -as usual-. To be buried in a Givenchy! Now that is what I call style….
Good take. I grew up next door to Mona, and wrote a novel about that experience ~ I remember her well, and my parents sued her three times in an official capacity to tone‑down the development of her estate in Bayville, NY. Two minor details, she is buried in the Locust Valley Cemetery, and Count Bismarck died in 1973.