Excerpt: 'Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures'

June 26, 2007— -- As an actress and as princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly was famous for her beauty, style and poise. Kelly was just 52 when she died in a 1982 car accident.

The fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger celebrates Kelly's life in new book, "Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures," a series of 200 never-before-seen public and private images of the princess shot by Magnum photographers.

"Grace Kelly's look was clean, classic, and simple. ... She was refreshingly wholesome, confident, passionate and full of poise," says Tommy Hilfiger. "Since my start in the fashion industry, I've dreamt of the chance to honor a woman who has had such great influence on my design sensibility."

Portions of the book sales will be donated to the Princess Grace Foundation, which supports emerging talent by granting opportunity in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships in the areas of dance, theater and film. For more information visit www.pgfusa.org

The following is the foreword of the book written by Tommy Hilfiger.

Grace Kelly was the fairest of them all. As a fashion designer, I constantly consider the power of pop culture and the style icons of our time. Why are we fascinated by some stars, while we are indifferent to others? Why do we pay to see them, or wish to be like them? With Grace Kelly, answers to these questions are more complicated than they at first might appear.

People often talk about Grace Kelly as "porcelain perfection." As far as I am concerned, this label completely misses the point. I never met Grace Kelly, but somehow I feel as if I knew her. She strikes me as having been very well grounded -- a real person who found herself in some highly unusual situations. She was a world-famous movie star, but for most of her life she chose to be a loyal wife, a dedicated mother, and a faithful friend. Involved with countless charities, she was truly a humanitarian. What might be a cliché under different circumstances in her case was literally true. She had an inner beauty that shined.

Her looks were clean, simple, and classic. She was a natural beauty, not at all pretentious or overdone. Grace Kelly didn't have to worry about hair and make-up, or being weighted down with jewelry. She was refreshingly wholesome, confident, compassionate and full of poise. Purity, I believe, was her greatest asset.