The 9 Men Who Made Monaco the Most Stylish City on Earth

For a tiny country, the Mediterranean outpost has always had global influence on trendsetters.

In the mid-sixties,

Grace Kelly

was not just Monaco’s “It Girl” and princess, but the most admired woman on Earth. Her beauty and taste were beyond reproach so it seemed only natural that she would gravitate toward Prince Rainier and his grand, if tiny, nation. At the time, 

Monte Carlo

, the capital, boasted a celebrity density not found before or since in the Western World. Founded in 1866, it had taken 

Monégasque

 only a century to become Europe’s hot spot.

With the principality’s

iconic Hotel de Paris

undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation scheme and yachts already jockeying for position for this spring’s 73rd

Monaco Grand Prix

, the world’s attention is about to be refocused on the tiny sovereign state – smaller than Central Park – and everything it has to offer. The place is changing, but the status is quo: Monte Carlo and Monaco are to luxury what Medellin and Colombia are to cocaine. They export the good stuff. And, yes, you know the leaders of this cartel of cool.





From the famed Monte Carlo Casino where various Bonds and blondes have tried their luck, to star-studded black tie galas, champagnes-soaked

soirées

and of course the world’s greatest Formula One race, here are the men who made Monaco in their own image, glamorous, swaggering and, yes, a little debauched.

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