The epitome of modern style and glamour, Daphne Guinness, 41, is a couture client like no other. Known for her badger-inspired hair color, the result of a peroxide mishap from before the time when peroxide was commonplace, and her cunning sense of style, Guinness is one of the few fashion eccentrics left. Born in 1967 to brewery heir Jonathan Guinness and Suzanne Lisney, she was raised in England and Ireland, but summered in Spain each year. Her young adult life took a turn at 19 when Guinness married Spyros Niarchos, the heir to an impressive shipping fortune.
Guinness had her couture debut at her wedding when she worked with Marc Bohan at Dior to custom design her dress. As controlled and well-articulated as her style is, it is entirely organic. Most people close to the style icon speak of her as a feather-in-the-wind type, delicate and whimsical, as well as impossible to catch. After her wedding, she reportedly lost contact with most of her friends and family for over 10 years. Jetting around the world and raising three children, the eldest of which was born just a year after her marriage, occupied most of her time until her divorce from Niarchos in 1999.
Guinness notes Nancy Cunard, Daisy Fellowes, Mona Bismarch, and her mother as her most prominent style icons, and it is with little effort that the influence is seen.
Despite the grandeur of most of her ensembles, she subscribes to a mostly monochromatic wardrobe with the occasional dash of cobalt or scarlet. Her clothing choices are organic in that she has an artist’s eye for what she is attracted to, and despises anything with an ‘it’ – it-bag, it-shoe. Her custom platforms created by Christian Louboutin are her go-to footwear despite the six inches they add to her 5’5” frame, and she admits to having worn the same handbag for over five years.
Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
