Daisy Fellowes

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Daisy Fellowes (née Marguerite Séverine Philippine Decazes de Glücksbierg, April 29, 1890-December 13, 1962), was a celebrated 20th-century society figure, acclaimed beauty, minor novelist and poet, editor in chief of French Harpers Bazaar, fashion icon, and an heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune.

1 Parents and childhood
2 First marriage
3 Second marriage
4 Affairs
5 Literary works
6 Status as fashion icon
7 External links

[edit] Parents and childhood

She was the only daughter of Isabelle-Blanche Singer (1869-1896), who committed suicide, and Jean Élie Octave Louis Sévère Amanieu Decazes (1864-1912), the 3rd Duke Decazes and Glücksbierg. Her maternal grandfather was Isaac Merritt Singer, the American sewing-machine pioneer. After her mother's death, she and her siblings were largely raised by their aunt Winnaretta Singer, Princess Edmond de Polignac, a noted patron of the arts, particularly music.

[edit] First marriage

Her first husband, whom she married on May 10, 1910, was Prince Jean Amédée Marie Anatole de Broglie, whom she reportedly caught in bed with the family's chauffeur. He died of influenza in 1918 while serving with the French Army in Algeria, though malicious observers gossiped that he actually committed suicide as a result of his homosexuality having been exposed.

They had three daughters: Princess Emmeline Isabelle Edmée Séverine de Broglie (later Countess de Castéja), Princess Isabelle de Broglie (a novelist who married and divorced the Marquis de La Moussaye), and Princess Jacqueline de Broglie (who married Alfred Kraus). Of her Broglie children, the notoriously caustic Daisy once said, "The eldest is like her father, only more masculine. The second is like me, only without the guts. And the last is by some horrible little man called Lischmann."

[edit] Second marriage

Her second husband, whom she married on August 9, 1919, was Hon. Reginald Ailwyn Fellowes (1884-1953), a banker cousin of Winston Churchill. They had one child, Rosamond Daisy Fellowes (1921-2003).

[edit] Affairs

Among her lovers was Duff Cooper, the British ambassador to France.

[edit] Literary works

Fellowes wrote several novels and at least one epic poem. Her best-known work is Les dimanches de la comtesse de Narbonne (1931, published in English as "Sundays"). She also wrote the novel Cats in the Isle of Man".

[edit] Status as fashion icon

She also was known as one of the most daring fashion plates of the 20th century, arguably the most important patron of the surrealist couturier Elsa Schiaparelli.