Having spent much of her life on the Kenyan ‘Ol Jogi’ ranch owned by her husband’s family – and indeed where the pair met and fell in love – Wildenstein’s strong affinity with animals not only filled her heart, but her wardrobe too. Was she playing into the ‘Catwoman’ allegations so cruelly thrust upon her? Or did she just know – as the most glamorous women in the world do – that leopard print is never out of style, and a fur coat goes with everything worth wearing. Via flowing safari prints and soft, tan-hued twin sets more often than not paired with her statement gilded snake choker coiled around her neck, the woman was not afraid of fashion most ferocious. Wildenstein lived and shopped on the wild side of life.
In the 1990s, she was the face of the era’s most entrancing opulence, posing for photos in bodycon cocktail dresses, earth-toned tailoring and towering fur coats, but by the time she began dating American designer Lloyd Klein in 2003, the pair began dressing in a double-act of coordinating slick black leather. Fashion truly is a language of love.
When out in NYC, she was often spotted on the scene with friend and transgender icon Amanda Lepore, known for her ultra-blown-up lips, exaggerated waistline and for claiming she has ‘the most expensive body on Earth’ owing to her lengthy procedures. Lepore relished in reinvention under the knife and in her 2005 club hit claimed, ‘I don’t know much about clothes, but my hair looks fierce’. Wildenstein even got a shoutout in the song (‘Jocelyn Wildenstein at my minibar, I got friends in high places with plastic faces). But for Wildenstein herself, the fashion could never come in second place. And full-throttle ostentation never looked so fearless.
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