Rani Sita Devi of Kapurthala (a.k.a. Princess Karam), born 1915 - died 2002, was widely regarded as one of the most glamorous women of her day.

She was a daughter of the Hindu Raja of Kashipur, a zamindari. At age 13, she married Karamjit Singh, a younger son of the Sikh Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala. She was considered one of the most beautiful women on the subcontinent. She was fluent in several European languages and possessed a strong flair for style. was the muse for several photographers from Cecil Beaton to Man Ray, whose pictures displayed her innate elegance and grace.i’s apparent preferred couturier was Mainbocher.igned the wedding dress for Wallis Simpson's nuptials with the Duke of Windsor. tavoher chiffon saris and fur coats, designed by Mainbocher, with dramatic effect and charm. In the mid-1930s she was widely followed by the society columns as a trendsetter. The Maharajkumari was such a “pop icon” of the 1930s she was the inspiration for one of Ira Gershwin's production numbers for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. n she was 19 years old, Vogue Magazine anointed her the latest “secular goddess.” Three years later Look named her one of the five best dressed women on earth. uturier Elsa Schiaparelli was impressed and artistically inspired by Princess Karam, so much so, that the gowns of the designer’s 1935 collection was constructed like the Rani's Indian saris. Princess Karam of Kapurthala was considered a slender seductress, who seemed to have access to all the most fashionable society salons. She was the toast of Paris, London and around the globe. In early 1939, at Lady Mendl's tea in honor of the Hollywood Dietitian, Dr. Gayelord Hauser, he gave his list for the twelve most glamorous women in the world. Among the nominees was Sita Devi.[6] May 1939, the princess wore a Mainbocher long-sleeved Burma-blue tulle gown with matching ostrich feather trim to Countess de Limur's annual party to launch the Paris spring society season. Ak later, at the Parisian restaurant Les Ambassadeurs, the Maharajkumari was vision of loveliness wearing, in what the newswires reported, the American designer's "corn-yellow crêpe peasant dress and kerchief." That July at the Season’s ending costume ball hosted by the designer, writer, arts patron, all-purpose aesthete and Renaissance man - Count Etienne de Beaumont and his wife, Edith, the Indian princess made an entrance in a Grecian-style gown by Alix (a.k.a. Madame Grès), fashioned from white jersey that was draped cleverly indicating three waist levels—just under the bosom, at normal location, and at a low hipline. It had a flowing knee-length cape gracefully attached at the shoulders. At the end of the summer in 1939, Elsie de Wolfe threw a party in honor of the Kapurthalan Princess. The entertainment included an entourage of trained elephants. As in the Indian tradition, she was dripping in jewels for all occasions. Her husband, Maharajkumar Karam, had spectacular jewelry created for her by Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and among other notable jewelers.