The Curator AMIN JAFFER

For AD's annual style issue, Amin Jaffer reminds us of one of the most elegant historic royal couples: Yeshwant Rao Holkar II and Sanyogita Devi of Indore whose personal style was only one facet of their life among European art, design, cinema and more.

- 

This playful image captures Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II and Maharani Sanyogita Devi of Indore in an informal moment, probably in Cannes in 1930. The artist had first met the maharaja in Paris, where he arrived at Man Ray’s studio “in Western clothes—sack suits and formal evening dress. He was young, tall and very elegant.” A second shoot—of the maharaja and his wife—was organized in the South of France, as a record of the couple’s honeymoon. Man Ray recalled, “The Maharanee was an exquisite girl in her teens. She wore French clothes, and a huge emerald ring.”