Daphne Guinness - “Through art, you create your own world."

Lately, I’ve been deriving some inspiration from the career of Daphne Guinness.  An heiress of the brewing family, daughter of Lord Moyne, she spent summers in Cadaques, Spain, among a contingent of Surrealist artists, where Salvador Dali was a frequent visitor.  

Daphne is a designer, has directed a couple of videos, written articles on fashion, and created a scent for Comme des Garcons.  For me, she is reminiscent of characters, both real and fictional, from the 19th century who dedicated their lives to outré aesthetics.  She’s a throwback to artistic thinkers and writers such as Wilde, Huysmans, and Baudelaire for whom the pursuit of style was not an avenue for self-aggrandizing ostentation, but rather a process of spiritual discovery.  

In her own way, she has made herself into a work of art, as well as a work in progress.  True to the Surrealist motivation to “épater le bourgeois,” Daphne is well-known as a icon of eccentricity.  

Speaking of her outlandish style, she says, “I do it for the old people who laugh at me in airports.”  She did, after all, attend a prominent clown school in London.

Daphne explains her style (or attempts to):