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In 1923 she married the English Baron Sir Robert Henry Edward Abdy and became his first wife. She made the Alice band popular, though her was not the wide padded velvet version we might recognise from the 1980s, but a delicate, pliable gold hoop commissioned from the basis of John Tenniel’s illustrations of Through the Looking Glass. With her high cheekbones and dark eyes (though she had a bouffant blonde hairstyle) Vogue often described her looks as “Balinese”, and breathlessly recounted the small quirky touches to her costume: a necklace of small shells from Tahiti or a straw peasant hat from Provence. Her jewellery was from Cartier and Fabergé, including pieces she commissioned from Cartier at the height of Egyptomania in an Egyptian influenced Art Deco style, and an enamelled locket with a portrait of Alexei Tsarevich inside from Fabergé. Her clothes were from Chanel, Reboux or any other designer boutique that took her fancy, as her family did not lose their fortune in the revolution. Image via Sotheby’s.Īs Crosby noted, Iya Abdy dressed in the height of fashion but with a sense of (impeccably tasteful) originality and grandeur. In 1917 they had a son, Gregory Jongejans, who upon emigrating to America changed his name to Gregory Gaynes as above. They fled to Finland, where Iya married a Dutch businessman called Gerrit Jongejans. Iya left Russia with her family during the Russian Revolution. Her son, Gregory Gaynes, also became a stage and film actor in the US who was very well known and starred in Police Academy amongst other productions. That’s how Iya was brought up.” Her brother, Gregory Gay, was also an actor, who appeared in small speaking parts in over 100 American films including Casablanca. One night he was Boris Gudunov, the next Ivan the terrible, and he travelled in caravans with parrots and leopards and cheetahs and tigers.
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Her father, George de Gay, was a celebrated actor who was, according to Diana Vreeland “known from one end of Russia to the other. Her grandfather Nikolay Gay was a friend of Leo Tolstoy, a member of Russian high society and popular painter. Lady Abdy ‘s family line was famous and flamboyant.