Fashion Reverie looks back at Russian-Georgian born designer Princess Irene Galitzine. Known for creating the “palazzo pajama,” Princess Irene Galitzine was born into an aristocratic family. Forced to leave Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Galitzine émigrés took up residence in Italy, with Irene Galitzine later studied art in Rome and languages at the Sorbonne and Cambridge.
After a 3-year stint designing for the Fontana Sisters, in 1946 Princess Galitzine opened her own salon and showed her first collection. In 1960, Galitzine introduced the palazzo pajama, which were aptly named by Diana Vreeland. These evening slacks in gauzy fabrics quickly became a staple of every fashionable woman’s wardrobe. “I was one of Emilio Pucci’s best customers, but I got tired of seeing the same clothes I was wearing on other people, so I began making my own things,” [Princess Galitzine] once said. “I put them in my first collection, and everybody went wild.”
Princess Galitzine designs have been worn by Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Marie-Helene de Rothschild, Jacqueline Onassis, Lee Radziwill, Greta Garbo, Duchess of Windsor, Audrey Hepburn Hepburn, Claudia Cardinale, and many others. Claudia Cardinale wore Galitzine’s famous palazzo pajamas in the original version of The Pink Panther (1963). Princess Galitzine also appeared in the cult classic Mahogany as herself.
Princess Irene Galitzine, at the age of 90, died at her home in Rome in 2006.
—Staff
Princess Irene Galitzine
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