Long before influencers and brand ambassadors, there was Ira von Fürstenberg. Vanity Fair Italia has looked back at the life of the princess who turned her name into a byword for jet-set glamour, and it is a story that reads like a film script: a royal wedding at 15, two marriages and two divorces by 24, nearly 30 films, friendships with the great designers and, later, a second career making jewellery.
A princess between two worlds
She was born in Rome on 17 April 1940 as Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galdina zu Fürstenberg, the daughter of the German Prince Tassilo von Fürstenberg and Clara Agnelli, whose brothers included the Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. Old European aristocracy on one side and Italy’s great industrial dynasty on the other gave her a very particular kind of polish. She grew up between Switzerland, Italy and an English boarding school, and spoke several languages.
At just 13 she modelled for Emilio Pucci, a family friend whose bright, freewheeling prints defined holiday dressing in the 1960s. In 1955, aged 15, she married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in Venice, a society wedding followed by the press around the world. Vanity Fair is careful to point out that behind the fairy-tale photographs was a very young girl pushed into an adult role. A second marriage, to the Brazilian industrialist Francisco “Baby” Pignatari, followed in 1961 and was also short-lived.
Vogue, Valentino and the cinema
In the 1960s and 1970s she became a regular in Vogue during the Diana Vreeland years, photographed by Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton. Her look mixed evening gowns, clean silhouettes and statement jewels, but above all it was unmistakably her own. Valentino Garavani was part of her circle, and she went on to work for his house, while Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent were also among her friends.
She never trained as an actress, yet she appeared in 28 films, starting with the 1968 spy spoof Matchless, and famously turned down Barbarella. In 1970 she even co-hosted the Sanremo Music Festival alongside Nuccio Costa and Enrico Maria Salerno.
A second life in jewellery
When the film offers slowed, she turned to designing jewellery, sculptures and decorative objects full of colour, precious materials and exotic touches, and in 1992 she launched the Ira von Fürstenberg Collection. She died in Rome in February 2024, aged 83, leaving behind a remarkable archive of photographs and the portrait of an era when fashion, aristocracy and cinema first blended into modern celebrity.
Her love of bold, colourful jewels is easy to borrow. Look at our emerald bracelets, sapphire bracelets and deep red ruby earrings, layer statement necklaces, or choose one of our matching jewellery sets. Finish the look with a leather piece from our women’s handbags, or browse all our jewellery.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (Ilaria Perrotta, 2 November 2026); Wikipedia, “Princess Ira von Fürstenberg”.
