Style File - Daphne Guinness

ONCE described as no longer a person but a concept, by the French writer Bernard-Henri Lévi, Daphne Guinness is one of the world's most glamorous women. With an enviable couture collection, a passion for jewellery, a notable fortune and designer friends including Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa, Acne's Jonny Johansson, Giorgio Armani, the Rodarte sisters and jeweller Shaun Leane, she is a fashion force to be reckoned with. She is make-up supremo François Nars' muse - appearing in his NARS campaigns - and she has created her own perfume in collaboration with Comme des Garcons and worked with Dover Street Market to release her own label - Daphne. She was born in 1967 and, at the age of 19, she married Spyros Niarchos - son of the immensely wealthy Greek shipping magnate, Starvos. Together, they have three children - Nicolas, 20, Alexis, 19, and Ines, 15 - and Daphne now bases herself in New York in order to be closer to Nicolas, who is studying at Yale (her other two children are at borading school). Her family is as intricate as her couture collection - she is the daughter of brewery heir Jonathan Guinness, granddaughter to Diana Mitford, great-niece to Nancy Mitford. She was brought up in England and Ireland, holidaying in Spain every summer, where she used to swim in Salvador Dali's lobster-filled pool. Here, we take a look at the woman whose style has been the topic of countless newspaper columns and the inspiration to many.