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Princess Charlene and Prince Albert headlined Monaco’s Red Cross Ball on Saturday, one of the marquee events on the principality’s summer social calendar. For the occasion, Charlene wore a luminous one-shoulder, column design by Elie Saab, one of her go-to designers. Some of her most memorable recent looks from the Lebanese designer include a shimmering silver gown she wore to the Rose Ball in March as well as a white embroidered midi dress to Pope Leo’s inauguration in 2025.
The Princely couple were joined on the red carpet by Camille Gottlieb, the daughter of Princess Stéphanie and a granddaughter of Grace Kelly, dressed in a soft yellow Elisabetta Franchi gown. (At last year’s Red Cross Ball, Gottlieb wore another Elisabetta Franchi gown that was a direct homage to Kelly’s iconic appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.)
The Red Cross Ball, held annually at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, is among Monaco’s most prominent annual galas. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene lead the evening in their capacities as president and vice president of the Monaco Red Cross, an organization that has been connected to the Grimaldi family since 1948. It was Kelly who took over as president in 1958, ten years after the first ball was held, and turned the event into one of Europe’s most glamorous events.
This year’s event marked a personal milestone for Charlene as it was exactly 20 years since her first appearance at the Red Cross Ball. In 2006, she attended as Prince Albert’s companion before any engagement had been announced, seated next to fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, a longtime friend of the Grimaldi family, in a moment that hinted at what was developing between the two. Although the belle of the ball now, her first appearance, by her own account, was anything but polished.
“My first Red Cross ball was a baptism by fire,” she told Vanity Fair. “I was used to living in a swimsuit and knew nothing about fashion. On the day of the ball, I’d been playing volleyball all day at the beach and didn’t think about getting ready until late afternoon. I borrowed a green dress from a friend, did my own hair, and painted my nails red…I looked like a Christmas tree.”