6. The Attire of Dollar Princesses Was Beyond Glamorous
When Consuelo Vanderbilt’s mother, Alva, secured her daughter’s engagement to the Duke of Marlborough, she left nothing to the imagination as she leaked every single detail of her daughter’s wedding to the press. She even gave them details about the undergarments that her daughter would be wearing as she walked down the aisle. To put it mildly, Consuelo’s wedding dress was unparalleled. Moreover, she was far from the only dollar princess who donned the most expensive, elegant attire that money could buy. Consider Mary Leiter, the Chicago-born daughter of a dry goods tycoon who became the Vicereine of India.
In 1902, when King Edward VII was coronated, Mary wore a dress that had been designed by the first couture designer, the House of Worth. The gown was made of gold (that’s right, gold) cloth that was bedecked with peacock feathers. Today, the dress is so renowned that it is on display at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire and is maintained by England’s National Trust, which claims that over 115 years after it was initially made, the dress remains a favorite to visitors. There is no way to understate the extravagance of the dollar princesses, who quite literally had the best that money could buy.