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.

Foreword

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.

She made a great impact in a small amount of time. It's surprising to remember how few movies she actually made. The one that really gives me the chills is To Catch a Thief. The movie was set in the French Riviera, which is one of my favorite places in the world. Add Grace Kelly to that spectacular setting, and the Côte d'Azur's ambience really blossoms.

By this point in her career, she'd been included on numerous best-dressedlists and was heralded internationally as a paragon of style. She made it look impossibly easy. Grace Kelly didn't follow fashion trends, but made her own. For example, unlike any other actresses then or since, she always wore white gloves around Los Angeles -- she exuded glamour by simply being herself. She became an icon without trying.

She was vital. She glowed. Back in the 1950s, the word 'marvelous' was popular and quite overused. But, for Grace Kelly, it was absolutely accurate. You didn't look at her up there on screen. You marveled.

At the age of 26, she quit acting. She was a top box office draw, an Academy Award winner, and yet she walked away from it all. She went out with a bang in her last film, High Society. In it, she sings her first song onscreen, Cole Porter's "True Love," a duet with co-star Bing Crosby. I suspect she sang extremely well because she'd found her own true love: Prince Rainier III of Monaco. She went from reel royalty to real royalty.

Being Her Serene Highness was a much more demanding role than any she'd ever had before. She went from living under the spotlight, to dwelling under a microscope. But, it didn't seem to bother her one bit. Not only did she quickly adjust, she triumphed.

It's an incredible, inspirational life, and now we are fortunate to have these glimpses of her, as never seen before until this book.

As I turn these pages, I'm mindful there will never be another Grace Kelly. Other natural beauties may emerge in the spotlight, but she was one of a kind.

Tommy Hilfiger