Dolores Guinness

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Dolores Guinness
Born
Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Herdringen

(1936-07-31)31 July 1936
Berlin, Germany
Died20 January 2012(2012-01-20) (aged 75)
Lausanne, Switzerland[1]
Spouse(s)
Patrick Benjamin Guinness
​
​
(m. 1955; d. 1965)​
Children3, including Victoria Christina Niarchos
Parent(s)Franz-Egon von Fürstenberg-Herdringen
Gloria Rubio y Alatorre

Dolores Guinness (31 July 1936 – 20 January 2012) was a German-born "Freiin" (Baroness), socialite, fashion icon and jet set member of the 1950s and 1960s. She has been a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1970.[2][3] Her mother was the famous Mexican-born socialite Gloria Guinness.

Early life[]

Born Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Herdringen on 31 July 1936 in Berlin-Charlottenburg.[4] She is the second daughter of Franz-Egon Maria Meinhard Engelbert Pius Aloysius Kaspar Ferdinand Dietrich, 3rd Graf von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896–1975) and his second wife, Gloria Guinness (née Rubio y Alatorre) (1912–1980). She also has a younger brother, Franz-Egon (born 1939), and a half-sister, Betsy von Furstenberg, from her father's previous marriage.

Though some published sources have described Dolores von Fürstenberg as a countess and a princess, she is, in fact, a Freiin (baroness) by birth, according to the last published issue of the Almanach de Gotha. Children of the counts von Fürstenberg-Herdringen are known as Freiherr (baron) or Freiin (baroness), and the sons move up in rank to Graf (count) only if they inherit the primary title.

Later life[]

At age 19, she married her stepbrother Patrick Benjamin Guinness[5] (1931–1965), son of Loel Guinness and Joan Yarde-Buller, on 22 October 1955 in Paris. Patrick was killed in a car accident in Turtig near Raron, Switzerland 1965.[6] Have issue:

  1. Maria Alexandra Guinness Cook (born 1956) married Foulques, Count de Quatrebarbes (born 1948) in 1979. Now divorced. Have issue.
  2. Loel Patrick Guinness (born 1957);
  3. Victoria Christina Niarchos (born 1960) married Philip Niarchos in 1984, son of late Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos. Have issue.

After Patrick's death, Dolores fell madly in love with the Aga Khan, the son of Joan Barbara Yarde-Buller (1908–1997) by her marriage to Aly Khan (1911–1960), and so her late husband's half-brother, and wanted to marry him, but nothing came of that eventually.[7]

Fashion icon[]

Dolores was often seen in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar,[8] Town and Country and Life magazine dressed in designer clothes from Givenchy, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga during the 1950s and 1960s, photographed by Cecil Beaton, Bert Stern, Henry Clarke, Mark Shaw (photographer), Richard Avedon and William Klein.[9] She often appeared on the International Best Dressed List during these years.

References[]

  1. ^ En hommage á Dolores Guinness Tribune de Genève - le 30 janvier 2012
  2. ^ Vanity Fair Archived 29 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Ultimate Style - The Best of the Best Dressed List. 2004. p. 158. ISBN 2 84323 513 8.
  4. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Freiherrliche Häuser, Band XV, Seite 135–177, Band 69 der Gesamtreihe, C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1989.
  5. ^ Mosley, Charles, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1695.
  6. ^ "Milestones: Oct. 15, 1965". Time. 15 October 1965. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  7. ^ She married her stepbrother Patrick Benjamin Guinness in 1955 and after his early death, later hoped to marry the Aga Khan IV, her late husband's half-brother, according to Etti (Mrs Arpad) Plesch, Horses & Husbands: The Memoirs of Etti Plesch, Dorset: The Dovecote Press, 2007, page 156.
  8. ^ Haslam, Nicholas, Redeeming Features , published in November 2009 by Knopf (US) and Jonathan Cape (UK), page 224.
  9. ^ The World in Vogue 1893–1963. 1963. pp. 404–405.
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