Thread by @Telegraph

👑Pauline Ducruet has lived with a circus troupe, been an Olympic diver and set up her own gender-fluid fashion label.

Meet the remarkable granddaughter of Grace Kelly.

🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…

Our fascination with Monaco and its ruling family has endured since the 13th century...

The Grimaldis have been lording it over their tiny toehold on the Côte d’Azur ever since.

🌟And the latest generation shows no signs of disappointing lovers of high drama and higher camp

Enter 27-year-old Pauline Ducruet, daughter of the turbulent Princess Stéphanie and her ex-husband (and former bodyguard), Daniel Ducruet.

👠With her label, Alter, she aims to become the first member of her family to make waves as a fashion designer

🩸She has style in her blood.

Her grandmother was Grace Kelly, the Hitchcock muse who married Prince Rainier of Monaco and who was a bona fide fashion icon.

Her aunt, Princess Caroline, now mostly wears Chanel, and Princess Stéphanie modelled for Dior
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…

❌But Pauline’s life hasn’t always been a riot of haute couture.

Quite the opposite: as a child, she spent years living in a caravan in a travelling circus and then trained as a professional diver

🎪As so often with the Grimaldis, the headlines wrote themselves: ‘Grace Kelly’s Daughter Princess Stéphanie Ran Away to the Circus’.

Stéphanie was photographed in front of her new caravan home, dubbed ‘The Palace’.

She took Pauline, then aged seven, with her

After the relationship with the elephant trainer fizzled out, Stéphanie embarked on a 14-month marriage to a Portuguese acrobat.

💎So naturally, Pauline decided to become an acrobat herself. ‘I wanted to wear leotards with sparkles,’ she confesses now
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…

🌏‘It was amazing to be so up and down,’ Ducruet reflects now of the contrast between the circus and watching her mother dress up for the round of Rose Balls, formal dinners and charity galas
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…

Currently 16th in line to the throne, Ducruet is more interested in proving herself as a businesswoman.

❌She is keen to stress this is not just another pet project from a gilded European jet-setter

When it came to launching her own brand, Ducruet says it was particularly important to show that she could do it on her own, using her own name.

👑Although she does add that her family ‘obviously help and support me’
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…

Elevating the fashion credentials of the Monaco royal family is a new chapter in Ducruet’s story.

Does she feel the weight of history? ‘I’m not fearless... but I have convictions’

Read more on the fascinating life of Grace Kelly's granddaughter👇
telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-…