Hélène Arpels
Hélène Arpels (née Ostrowska; 1907–2006) was a French model, the wife of jeweler Louis Arpels, and later a shoe designer and retailer in New York. She was known for her catch phrase "Diamonds go with everything" and was on the annual "10 Best Dressed List" for more than a decade. Shoes designed by Arpels are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Early life Hélène Ostrowska was born in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in 1907, the daughter of Ukrainian-Polish parents, Michel Ostrowsky and Cécile Werblovska. Her older sister, Eugénie, was born in 1905. In 1933, she was working as a fashion model for the House of Worth, when she married the jeweler Louis Arpels of Van Cleef & Arpels. In August 1940, they sailed on one of the last war-time liners bound for the United States. In New York City, they established the American branch of the business. Career Shortly after the Second World War, Arpels opened a small boutique in midtown Manhattan, selling contemporary versions of embroidered Arabian kaftans, intended to be worn as "bohemian eveningwear". However, it was her "exquisitely made shoes" that would grow to be the mainstay of the business, and Arpels