A granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II, Princess Natalie Paley possessed few relatives who hadn’t been murdered, but was blessed with stunning good looks and the capriciousness of a thoroughbred. In her husband Lucien Lelong’s sculpted creations she became the focus of many of early fashion photography’s greatest moments.
She was a daughter of Alexander II’s eighth son, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, and half-sister of Grand Duchess Marie and Grand Duke Dmitri, the latter involved in the murder of Rasputin. Her mother, Olga, was a commoner and her parents’ marriage scandalised the Romanov court. When the Revolution broke out, Grand Duke Paul and his family were placed under house arrest. Eventually, the princess’s brother, Vladimir, a poet, was thrown down a mineshaft with the Tsarina’s sister and finished off with a hand grenade. Six months after that Paley’s father was shot. The remaining family members escaped penniless to Finland (they walked).
Perhaps as a result of her exile Paley felt she never truly belonged anywhere, though she called Paris home. Her marriage to Lelong was one of convenience and each kept their own circle of intimates. Paley’s appearances in Vogue gradually diminished but she never entirely disappeared from fashion circles. For many years she was a public relations consultant to the US couturier Mainbocher. She died in 1981.