It is a mistake to believe that the best-groomed women are necessarily the best-known. Some of the century's most stylish individuals such as the Australian-born Enid, Lady Kenmare or American heiress Millicent Rogers were almost unrecognised outside their immediate circle. The same is true of Rose Kelly, who has never been a self-publicist and whose personal flair can seem overshadowed by her publisher husband's ebullience.

Not that she ever fails to make an impact with her presence. On the contrary, thanks to a well-honed eye and a faultless understanding of her appearance, Rose Kelly always captures attention without having to resort to the outrageous. She represents good taste without the blandness which this term so often implies. There is nothing bland about her dress even when this is at its most classic - a Chanel boucle suit, for example - because she brings her own powerful sensibility to the clothes.

Colour plays a part in achieving effect. She is one of the few women who can successfully wear yellow, which looks wonderful against her honey-toned skin and hair. Indeed, there appears to be no shade she may not and does not wear. In addition, she brings a boldness to costume jewellery that few others could afford to risk; Rose Kelly's large gilt and pearl earrings are almost a trademark, and look as well when she is dressed in jeans and a shirt as with more formal costume.

The key to her success lies in perfect finish and judicious use of the best materials. Perhaps thanks to having spent so much time in France and Italy, Rose Kelly exudes impeccable grooming at all times. She invariably looks her most dashing in evening clothes; bucking the current devotion to bias-cut slips, she will be seen instead wearing a close-fitting top and voluminous taffeta skirt and looking like a dainty porcelain figure created in 18th-century Dresden for the Elector Augustus of Saxony.

That daintiness is enhanced by her petite figure. Standing at barely five foot tall, she is full of animation and might be a reincarnation of Emerald Cunard, the inter-war London hostess whose social skills she shares. Cunard was often described as birdlike, and this applies to Rose Kelly also; thanks to the plumage with which she adorns herself, she is a bird of paradise.