Sita Devi (Maharani of Kapurthala)


Maharajkumarani Sita Devi Sahiba (Nainital, 30 September 1915 − New Delhi, 2002), also known as Princess Karam, was widely regarded as one of the most glamorous women of her day.[1]

Life

Sita Devi was the daughter of Raja Uday Raj Singh of Kashipur by his wife. At age 13, she married Karamjit Singh, a younger son of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala. She was fluent in several European languages and was considered to have a strong sense of style.[1] She was a muse for several photographers, from Cecil Beaton to Man Ray.[1] Her preferred couturier was Mainbocher, who designed the wedding dress for Wallis Simpson's nuptials with the Duke of Windsor.[2] Sita Devi wore chiffon saris and fur coats designed by Mainbocher.[1] She was widely followed by the society columns as a 'trend-setter'.

As a popular society figure of the 1930s, she was the inspiration for one of Ira Gershwin's production numbers for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936.[3] When she was 19 years old, Vogue Magazine anointed her the latest "secular goddess." Three years later, Look named her one of the five best dressed women on Earth. The couturier Elsa Schiaparelli was so dazzled by Sita Devi that the gowns of the designer’s 1935 collection were constructed like Indian saris. In early 1939, at Lady Mendl's tea in honor of the Hollywood dietitian, Dr. Gayelord Hauser, Sita Devi was listed among the twelve most glamorous women in the world.[4]

At the end of the summer in 1939, Elsie de Wolfe threw a party in her honour.[5] The entertainment included an entourage of trained elephants. Her husband had spectacular jewelry created for her by Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and among other notable jewelers.

She was the grandmother of contemporary jewelry designer, Kanwar Shri Hanut Singh (b. 1973 in New Delhi).[6]

Honours

References
  1. Made for Maharajas: a design diary of princely India / by Amin Jaffer; pages 113, 116-117. New York: Vendome Press, 2006. ISBN 0-86565-174-4 ISBN 978-0-86565-174-6
  2. Sunday, 10 December 2006
  3. karam kapurthala.html Paperdollywood
  4. Time 13 February 1939
  5. A Life in Good Taste by Ruth Franklin New Yorker 9 September 2004
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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