Princess Ira von Fürstenberg—A Common Sight in 1960s- and ’70s-Era Vogue—Is the Subject of a New Biography

Were Princess Ira von Fürstenberg a feline, she would have run through all of her lives a while back.

This year she’s put them all between covers—her life, loves, lavish pictures of what she wore—in a new biography by Nicholas Foulkes, Ira: The Life and Times of a Princess, published by Harper Collins.

“I wanted to give an idea of an era that no longer exists,” offered the princess, who turns 80 next spring, at a book signing at Sotheby’s in Paris. “It was such a natural time—we had fun. Today, people are doing business.”

Connected by blood or marriage to virtually every royal and aristocratic family in Europe, Princess Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galinda von und zu Fürstenberg was born to the impoverished former Austro Hungarian Prince Tassilo and Clara Agnelli (Gianni’s sister) in 1940. An early model, at 13, for swimwear by a family friend named Emilio Pucci, she had not yet completed finishing school or officially made her society debut when she became engaged at 14. The following year, she married a man twice her age, Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe, in a fairy-tale wedding and a lace bridal gown by the Vionnet protégé Pierre Griffe. The biggest European society wedding in the years following World War II, it became the cover story for Life magazine (October 17, 1955). The newlyweds partied their way through Manhattan, Acapulco, and Marbella. Ira became a mother at 16; by 24, she had divorced, remarried, divorced again, and was embroiled in a bitter custody battle.

Perhaps not surprisingly, that’s when she swore off marriage—though her liaisons kept the tabloids busy. “All the energy my first husband put into going to all the shoots in Europe, I put into being at all the parties in the world,” she says in the book. She also tried her hand at acting, appearing in dozens of films. Her jet-setting lifestyle brought her into the orbit of Diana Vreeland, who put her in Vogue in 1967 and kept her there through the 1970s, in photographs by Henry Clarke, Elisabetta Catalano, Irving Penn, and Helmut Newton. Ira struck up a close friendship with Karl Lagerfeld, walked in a Mondrian dress for Yves Saint Laurent, and became president of Valentino perfumes.

“I knew them all,” she said, as trays laden with Champagne sailed around the salons upstairs at Sotheby’s. “I loved Saint Laurent, so elegant; I have things from Lancetti, Scherrer, everyone.” Not that she misses the swirl of the past. “Life goes on, there are other things now.” Namely, the 200 or so sculptures and objects in rock crystal and bronze she produces every year.

And fashion today? “My father used to say, ‘One must cover oneself.’ So I do. I think Armani does it so well. Just last week I picked up a lot of things; it’s so easy. The important thing is to feel good in your clothes.”

Asked whether she held on to the couture, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg demurs. “I would have needed two more houses if I had kept all those dresses.”