The Rose Ball is always a highlight of the high society calendar – an opportunity for the Monégasque great and gilded to don their finery in support of the Princess Grace Foundation. As ever, the 2025 edition was a showcase for the royal House of Grimaldi, with Princess Charlene, Charlotte Casiraghi, and Princess Alexandra of Hanover all holding court at the sunset-themed gala.
Stealing the show, however? None other than Beatrice Borromeo. The journalist (who once told all to Tatler about her biggest scoop) joined her husband, Pierre Casiraghi at the Monte-Carlo Sporting Club for this year’s Rose Ball, one that will have been of especial importance to Beatrice, considering her mother-in-law, Princess Caroline of Hanover, served as president for this iteration of the event.
But there was one family member in particular to whom Front Row favourite Beatrice Borromeo paid particular tribute as the sun set on 29 March: Pierre’s grandmother, Grace Kelly. The 39-year-old, whose family of Italian aristocrats own much of the Borromean islands in Lake Maggiore as well as swathes of Milan city, Piedmont and Lombardy, chose a draped and pleated scarlet gown by Dior for the Rose Ball (a fitting choice, considering both Beatrice and her husband are ambassadors for the fashion house).
With its cascading pleats and statement sleeves, the dress looked strikingly similar to one of the most iconic gowns in the fabled wardrobe of Princess Grace of Monaco – who founded the Rose Ball back in 1954 to support humanitarian projects. Emphasising the showstopping outfit, Borromeo wore a set of classic Tiffany jewels, opting for a necklace, brooch, and earrings from the jeweller’s ‘Bird on a Rock’ line.
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The gown bears a resemblance to a piece that Grace Kelly wore to the Red Cross Ball in 1976, where she was joined by her daughter, Princess Caroline. Even that outfit, however, appeared to harken back to one dress in particular, from one of Kelly's most notable starring roles.
Dial M for Murder was Grace Kelly’s first collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock. Released in 1954 – the year the American actress founded the Rose Ball, and two years before she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco – the crime thriller cemented her status as a paragon of 1950s fashion. Kelly plays Margot Wendice, whose retired tennis pro husband Tony (Ray Milland) attempts to have her killed (then framed for the murder of her would-be assassin) after he finds out that she is conducting an affair with Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings).
An experiment in colour, Grace Kelly’s costume designer Moss Mabry once said that the future Princess’s outfits were intended to become less colourful as the film progressed, charting her journey from monied socialite to embattled suspect.
‘We did an interesting color experiment with Grace Kelly’s clothing,’ Mabry once said of the film. ‘I dressed her in very gay and bright colors at the beginning of the picture, and as the plot thickened, her clothes became gradually more somber.’
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Her most iconic look, then, comes from the scene in which Margot’s fortunes sour. Early in the film, she reveals to her lover that one of the letters he wrote her has been stolen and was used to blackmail the couple. Despite the tension, Kelly’s character wears a strapless scarlet evening gown with lace sleeves and circle skirt – a now storied outfit, and one that Beatrice Borromeo channeled with the sort of elegance that would make her husband’s grandmother proud. Of course, it’s no wonder she has the style savoir faire required to pull off a Princess Grace homage; Beatrice famously donned four couture gowns when she tied the knot with Pierre in 2015.
The former model is not the only Monègasque royal to pay tribute to Grace Kelly at the family’s dazzling galas. In July 2024, Camille Gottlieb, daughter of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, also channeled Dial M for Murder at the Red Cross Ball, wearing an eye-catching scarlet ballgown as she joined Prince Albert and Princess Charlene. Beatrice’s sister-in-law, Princess Alexandra of Hanover, is also known for her style hommages to the American actress – most recently at the Monaco National Day celebrations in November.
Princess Alexandra wore an elegant brown suit as she joined her family for the annual festivities. The 25-year-old then revealed on her Instagram story that the piece once belonged to her grandmother; a look back through the archives reveals that Princess Grace did, in fact, wear the suit (or at least a strikingly similar look) while she waved from the palace balcony on National Day in 1960.
With a family legacy as regal as theirs, it is no surprise that the Monaco royals so often take a leaf from Grace Kelly's style playbook – and in Beatrice Borromeo's latest showcase, she proved that elegance truly does run in the family.
