Fellowes had the air of having just disembarked from a yacht, one observer noted, adding, “which she very likely had”. Rich and soignée, half-French and half-American, the Hon Mrs Reginald Fellowes was considered the best-dressed woman in the world. She had, editor Diana Vreeland said, “the elegance of the damned”.
Born in 1890, as a young woman she was sketched by John Singer Sargent. Her first, brief, marriage to Jean, Prince de Broglie, propelled her into the society pages. Her second, in 1919, to Reginald Fellowes, a financier and cousin of Winston Churchill, propelled her further. “The Hon Mrs Reginald Fellowes is the embodiment of the 20th century in the variety of her interests,” reported Vogue. “She is a noted sportswoman and author. Mrs Fellowes’s first book, published recently, is called Cats in the Isle of Man.”