It was July 2021 when a 20-year-old Victoria Federica in denim jeans made her debut at the Dior haute couture show of Paris Fashion Week. Then, the niece of King Felipe VI attended the glamorous event as the companion of her father, Jaime de Marichalar. Like Pygmalion, it has been the former husband of Infanta Elena who has guided her professional steps after the young woman left university studies, helping her to focus her public projection toward modeling and the marketing of premium brands.
Five years later, and now established as a solid influencer, Victoria Federica de Marichalar is a regular in the front row at the French house in this key moment of world fashion. In the latest Paris Fashion Week she returned to attend the Dior show, where her Spring/Summer 2027 collection was presented in the iconic Jardin des Tuileries. The daughter of Infanta Elena shared the front row of the event with stars such as Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, Beatrice Borromeo, or Rosalía.
Unlike other celebrities who opted for more flamboyant looks, Victoria Federica chose a subtle, masculine-inspired styling, in which the power of basics elevated by luxury accessories stood out. The young woman paired a white shirt with the cuffs unbuttoned, together with a fluid gray trousers featuring a houndstooth print to stand out in a space off-limits to the vast majority of traditional influencers.
This time, Victoria Federica did not require her father by her side. But it is clear that her stylist mentor, the person who gave her her first pair of Manolos when she turned 18, has played a key role in fast-tracking her career in the fashion and haute couture sector. All this is largely thanks to Jaime de Marichalar’s strategic role in the LVMH Group and his long-standing ties to the luxury world.
Victoria Federica and Her Styling Mentorship
The myth tells us that Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus and a sculptor who carved a perfect statue of a woman named Galatea and fell in love with her. And then the goddess Aphrodite brought the statue to life upon seeing the sculptor’s love and faith. And psychology tells us that the Pygmalion effect describes how the expectations one person holds about another can influence their performance and cause those expectations to come true. Something that, in practical terms, we have already seen Jaime de Marichalar do with both his ex-wife and his daughter.
Victoria Federica at the Dior SS27 show in Paris.
After the aristocrat transformed Infanta Elena’s style toward haute couture in the 1990s, Victoria Federica later replicated the same successful formula. Jaime de Marichalar guided the evolution of her ensembles, facilitating access to exclusive garments and sponsorship from top-tier brands like Manolo Blahnik. The Borbón surname and his father’s connections have been the master key that has allowed her to leap over the barriers of international fashion.
Jaime de Marichalar’s work linked to the LVMH group and the Loewe brand since 2004, in addition to being the founding partner of the tailoring brand B Corner, has given him ample credentials in the luxury sector. Since their joint debut at Paris Fashion Week in 2021, their image on the runways of the French capital or at shows by brands such as Loewe has become a constant that reiterates the VIP guest status of the young royal.
An Intimate Father-Daughter Relationship
The romantic relationship between Jaime de Marichalar and Infanta Elena officially ended in 2007 (with that famous ‘temporary cessation of marital cohabitation’) and the divorce affected his two children a lot. Since then, he has maintained a close relationship with both, but it shows that Victoria Federica is his favorite. “My daughter also goes out and has fun, but she is a woman and she is smarter; you don’t see her as much as her brother,” he said about her in very uncommon public statements.
Jaime de Marichalar and Victoria Federica, at their Paris Fashion Week debut.
Like Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, thanks to her father, Victoria Federica has access to the very top of the haute couture world. From there, wanting to become an influencer was a very small step that, of course, she took. Jaime de Marichalar has always supported his daughter’s interest in the world of fashion, and since then she regards him as a reference.
In her 2024 visit to the podcast A solas con… by Vicky Martín Berrocal, Victoria Federica highlighted that it was her father who instilled in her the love for this world and that she always learns new things when she attends a show with him. And she also showed a great rapport and admiration toward Jaime de Marichalar, considering him a key figure in her life and her development.
