Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter debuts at the ultimate nepo-baby event
Apple Martin, the daughter of Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is the latest Hollywood nepo-baby taking advantage of her boldface name and bloodline to secure a place on fashion’s front line.
While Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s daughter Sunday Rose chose the runway for her first fashion foray in Miu Miu this year, Martin appeared at the weekend at the exclusive Le Bal des Debutantes in Paris to walk and waltz in Valentino haute couture.
Accompanied by the extravagantly named Austrian-Hungarian nobleman Leo Cosima Henckel von Donnersmarck, 20-year-old Martin wore a strapless, sky-blue, tiered dress with black bow designed by Alessandro Michele, which took the Valentino atelier 750 hours to assemble.
A selfie by Apple Martin, with mother Gwyneth Paltrow, wearing the Valentino gown for “Le Bal des Debutantes”.Credit: Instagram @gwynethpaltrow
Martin was accompanied by her famous parents, who “consciously uncoupled” in 2016, her brother Moses and her grandmother actress Blythe Danner at the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris, once the far from humble home of a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Any casual Bridgerton viewer can tell you that debutante balls are steeped in tradition that stretches back to 1780, signalling a young woman’s arrival in society centuries before the arrival of Instagram. The tradition migrated to Australia, where it manifests in town halls with virginal white taffeta and tulle gowns, rented cummerbunds and awkward Pride of Erin dances.
White gowns were in short supply at this year’s invitation-only Le Bal, where celebrity, royal and just plain wealthy offspring wore haute-couture gowns from Giambattista Valli, Giorgio Armani, Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Loading
While she may be the first Apple to appear at the event founded by publicist Ophélie Renouard in 1994, other celebrity children to make their debut include Emily in Paris star Lily Collins in 2007, Reese Witherspoon’s daughter Ava Phillippe in 2017 and Sylvester Stallone’s daughter Sophia in 2012.
Australians to have made the cut are Kerry Packer’s granddaughter Francesca Packer-Barham, wearing a red gown from Melbourne bridal designer Jane Hill in 2013; philanthropist Sir Ian Potter’s granddaughter Zofia Krasicki dressed by Oglia-Loro Couture in 2015; and lawyer Geoffrey Robertson and writer Kathy Lette’s daughter Georgina Robertson in 2009 wearing Collette Dinnigan, alongside Lady Kitty Spencer.
“Le Bal is a fairy tale event in which the aristocracy rub sequinned shoulder pads with the celebritocracy,” wrote The Telegraph following the ball.
“With so much misogyny in the world, le bal is a celebration of womanhood. We are not ‘coming out’. We’re simply saying ‘Bonsoir! Here we are!’”
This year, Martin shared the media wall with Sophia Loren’s granddaughter Lucia Ponti, Princess Eugenia de Borbon Vargas and Oona Finch, granddaughter of Australian-raised Oscar-winner Peter Finch.
The charity event raised money for hospitals in New York and Paris, but remains most successful at raising celebrity profiles.
“I invite people because I find them interesting and because we can tell a story about them,” Renouard told the South China Morning Post in 2022.
Judging by this year’s guest list, famous parents are the most interesting thing of all.
Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.
Loading
