Gloria Guinness Gloria Guinness ( born Gloria Rubio y Alatorre ; August 27 , 1912 – November 9 , 1980 ) was a socialite and fashion icon of the Twentieth Century , as well as a contributing editor to " Harper ' s Bazaar " from 1963 until 1971 . She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964 . Early life . Born in Veracruz , Veracruz , Mexico , she was a daughter of José Rafael Rubio Torres ( 1880 - 1916 ) , a Mexican journalist , and his wife , Maria Luisa Dolores Alatorre Diaz ( b . 1882 ) . As a young woman , she was employed as a nightclub hostess before moving to Germany . Marriages . Her first husband was a German - born resident of Mexico named Scholtens , from whom she was divorced . She married a second time on October 4 , 1935 , in Kensington , London , England , to Franz - Egon Maria Meinhard Engelbert Pius Aloysius Kaspar Ferdinand Dietrich , third Graf von Fürstenberg - Herdringen ( 1896 – 1975 ) ; she was his second wife . By him , she had two children : She also had a stepdaughter from her husband ' s first marriage , the actress Betsy von Furstenberg . According to her friend Etti Plesch , Gloria Rubio Scholtens was introduced to Fürstenberg by her mentor , newspaper heir , diplomat , and art collector Friedrich Horstmann , who reportedly " dressed her up and presented her at a dinner as a mysterious aristocrat . " Her third husband was Prince Ahmad - Abu - El - Fotouh Fakhry Bey ( 1921 – 1998 ) whom she married in 1942 . He was a grandson of King Fuad I of Egypt and a nephew of Princess Fawzia of Egypt ( the first wife of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi , Shah of Iran ) and King Farouk I of Egypt . During her marriage to Fakhri , she also was a mistress of the British ambassador to France , Duff Cooper . At same time Cooper were involved with Princesse Ghislaine de Polignac ( 1918 – 2011 ) and Louise de Vilmorin After her divorce in 1949 , Gloria Fakhri became involved with both Loel Guinness and David Beatty , 2nd Earl Beatty . Her fourth husband , whom she married on April 7 , 1951 , in Antibes , was Group Captain Thomas " Loel " Guinness , a Member of Parliament ( 1906 – 1988 ) and a member of the extended Guinness beer family , though his particular branch made its fortune in banking and real estate . Of him , she told Noël Coward , " I could never sleep with Loel . He farts too much . " Spy ? There is also a long - standing rumor that Gloria Guinness was employed at some point as a spy and that when she married her fourth husband , she had no valid passport and was legally a citizen of no country . This rumor is to a certain degree borne out by her appearance in a series of supposedly nonfiction books written by Aline , Countess of Romanones , who knew her during World War Two and was a friend , fellow spy ( originally on opposite sides , the Countess was still an American citizen during the war , and an employee of the OSS ) , and sometime adversary of Gloria , who was by this point an almost legendary character , the glamorous " Countess von Fürstenberg " who maintained friendships with important Nazis , including Hermann Göring and even Adolf Hitler himself , and lived in neutral Madrid throughout the latter days of the Second World War as an espionage agent for the Axis . Six homes around the world . The Guinnesses had an apartment in Manhattan ' s expensive Waldorf Towers , an eighteenth century farmhouse called Villa Zanroc in Epalinges near Lausanne ( with a bowling alley in the basement ) , a 350 - ton yacht that plied the Mediterranean in the summer , a seven - story house on Avenue Matignon in Paris , decorated by Georges Geffroy ( 1903 – 1971 ) , a stud farm in Normandy , Haras de Piencourt near Guy de Rothschild , and a mansion near Palm Beach at Lake Worth , Florida . The Florida property , which is divided by U . S . Highway A1A , faces the lake on one side and the beach on the other ; the two halves are connected by a specially built tunnel under the highway that Mrs . Guinness had decorated with furniture and screens painted by a young French artist she was interested in . In addition , the Guinnesses owned a house in Acapulco , Mexico , designed by the Mexican architect Marco Antonio Aldaco . They also kept three aircraft : an Avro Commander for short trips around Europe , a small jet , and a helicopter for Loel Guinness ' s hops between the Lake Worth house and the Palm Beach golf course . Fashion . She was dressed by Cristóbal Balenciaga , Elsa Schiaparelli , Marc Bohan at Christian Dior , Chanel , Hubert de Givenchy , Yves Saint Laurent , Chanel , Valentino Garavani , Halston and shoes by Roger Vivier . But she also favored the Spaniard Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey at Lanvin ( clothing ) . She was one of the first persons to wear the capri pants by Emilio Pucci . She was photographed for " Vogue " , " Harper ' s Bazaar " and " Woman ' s Wear Daily " by Cecil Beaton , Richard Avedon , John Rawlings , Toni Frissell , Horst P . Horst , Slim Aarons and Henry Clarke . Artist like René Bouché , Kenneth Paul Block and Alejo Vidal - Quadras ( 1919 – 94 ) painted her . She appeared on the International Best Dressed List from 1959 through 1963 . The year after she was elevated into its Hall of Fame . Donations . She gave an enormous number of items to Victoria & Albert Museum from Cristóbal Balenciaga , Christian Dior , Yves Saint Laurent , André Courrèges , Antonio Canovas del Castillo del Rey at Lanvin ( clothing ) , Hubert de Givenchy , Hellstern and Jeanne Lafaurie , proving that she spread her commissions amongst many different couturiers . Among the seventeen outfits , twelve hats and pairs of shoes that she donated were a 1948 Balenciaga evening gown of organdie with flock flowers , an evening gown from 1965 , a 1949 hand - painted evening gown by Marcelle Chaumont ( b . 1892 , house closed in 1953 ) , and a 1950s evening gown by Jeanne Lafaurie , the only dress by that designer in the collection of Victoria & Albert Museum . Some items by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Elsa Schiaparelli were donated to The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York . Writing . Guinness wrote frequently for " Harper ' s Bazaar " , most famously asserting , in the magazine ' s July , 1963 , issue : " Elegance is in the brain as well as the body and in the soul . Jesus Christ is the only example we have of any one human having possessed all three at the same time . " She also wrote an appreciation to the catalogue " The World of Balenciaga " held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1973 . Death . Gloria Guinness died of a heart attack at her home , Villa Zanroc in Epalinges , Switzerland at the age of 68 .