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Natacha Rambova
Rambova in 1925
Born	Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy (1897-01-19)January 19, 1897 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Died	June 5, 1966(1966-06-05) (aged 69) Pasadena, California, U.S.
Other names	Winifred Hudnut\n Winifred de Wolfe \n Natacha Valentino \n Natacha de Urz\u00e0iz \n
Occupations	Costume and set designer dancer actress academic
Spouses	\n \n Rudolph Valentino \n (m. 1923; div. 1925) \n \n \u00c1lvaro de Urz\u00e1iz \n (m. 1932; ann. 1957) \n
Relatives	Heber C. Kimball (great-grandfather)

Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy; January 19, 1897 \u2013 June 5, 1966) was an American film costume designer, set designer, and occasional actress who was active in Hollywood in the 1920s. In her later life, she abandoned design to pursue other interests, specifically Egyptology, a subject on which she became a published scholar in the 1950s.\n

Rambova was born into a prominent family in Salt Lake City who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was raised in San Francisco and educated in England before beginning her career as a dancer, performing under Russian ballet choreographer Theodore Kosloff in New York City. She relocated to Los Angeles at age 19, where she became an established costume designer for Hollywood film productions. It was there she became acquainted with actor Rudolph Valentino, with whom she had a two-year marriage from 1923 to 1925. Rambova's association with Valentino afforded her a widespread celebrity typically afforded to actors.^[1] Although they shared many interests such as art, poetry and spiritualism, his colleagues felt that she exercised too much control over his work and blamed her for several expensive career flops.\n

After divorcing Valentino in 1925, Rambova operated her own clothing store in Manhattan before moving to Europe and marrying the aristocrat \u00c1lvaro de Urz\u00e1iz in 1932. It was during this time that she visited Egypt and developed a fascination with the country that remained for the rest of her life. Rambova spent her later years studying Egyptology and earned two Mellon Grants to travel there and study Egyptian symbols and belief systems. She served as the editor of the first three volumes of Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations (1954\u20137) by Alexandre Piankoff, also contributing a chapter on symbology in the third volume. She died in 1966 in California of a heart attack while working on a manuscript examining patterns within the texts in the Pyramid of Unas.\n

Rambova has been noted by fashion and art historians for her unique costume designs that drew on and synthesized a variety of influences, as well as her dedication to historical accuracy in crafting them. Academics have also cited her interpretive contributions to the field of Egyptology as significant. In popular culture, Rambova has been depicted in several films and television series, figuring significantly in the Valentino biopics The Legend of Valentino (1975), in which she was portrayed by Yvette Mimieux, and Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) by Michelle Phillips. She was also featured in a fictionalized narrative in the network series American Horror Story: Hotel (2015), portrayed by Alexandra Daddario.\n

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Year\n	Title\n	Role\n	Notes\n	Ref.\n
1917\n	The Woman God Forgot \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer\n	^[126]\n
1920\n	Why Change Your Wife? \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer\n	^[27]\n
1920\n	Something to Think About \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer\n	^[27]\n
1920\n	Billions\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer\n	^[26]\n
1921\n	Forbidden Fruit \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer\n	^[26]\n
1921\n	Camille \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer Uncredited\n	^[26]\n
1921\n	Aphrodite\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer (never made)\n	^[26]\n
1922\n	Beyond the Rocks \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Valentino's costumes\n	^[26]\n
1922\n	The Young Rajah\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer Uncredited\n	^[26]\n
1922\n	A Doll's House\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer\n	^[26]\n
1923\n	Salom\u00e9 \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer, writer Credited as Peter M. Winters\n	^[26]\n
1924\n	The Hooded Falcon\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer, set decorator, writer (never made)\n	^[26]\n
1924\n	Monsieur Beaucaire \u00a7\n	\u2014\n	Costume designer, writer\n	^[26]\n
1924\n	A Sainted Devil\n	\u2014\n	Art director, costume designer, writer\n	^[26]\n
1925\n	What Price Beauty?\n	\u2014\n	Producer, writer\n	^[26]\n
1926\n	When Love Grows Cold\n	Margaret Benson\n	Orig. title: Do Clothes Make the Woman?; only acting credit\n	^[26]\n

Year\n	Title\n	Role\n	Run date(s)\n	Venue\n	No. of performances\n	Notes\n	Ref.\n
1927	Set a Thief	Anne Dowling	February 21 \u2013 May 1	Empire Theatre	80	Broadway	^[127]\n
1927	Creoles	Golondrina	September 22 \u2013 October 16	Klaw Theatre	28	Broadway	^[128]\n

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Artists	ULAN Museum of Modern Art
People	DDB
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Early life

Career

Design in film

Relationship with Rudolph Valentino

Writing and fashion design

Egyptology and scholarly work

Later life and death

Claims regarding personal life

Cultural significance

Design and fashion

Scholarly influence

Depictions in art and film

Filmography

Stage credits

Bibliography

Authored works

Edited works

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

External links

Natacha Rambova

Talks

Timelines