Victoire de Castellane was born into the French aristocratic House of Castellane, tracing back to the 10th century – the family tree includes reigning princes, bishops, generals and noblemen. De Castellane’s great-grand-uncle Boni de Castellane (1867–1932) was a Parisian dandy and legend of the Belle Époque[3] who married American railroad heiress Anna Gould. He was twice elected député (congressperson) of the Basses-Alpes region of France. De Castellane was brought up by her maternal grandmother and her uncle, Gilles Dufour, one of Karl Lagerfeld’s principal assistants, first at Fendi then Chanel.[3]
De Castellane has commented that her love of jewelry making was triggered by watching her paternal grandmother, Silvia Rodriguez de Rivas, Countess de Castilleja de Guzman, "change her baubles to match her different outfits several times a day." Her first jewelry-making feat was accomplished at the age of five when she dismantled a priceless charm-bracelet belonging to her mother in order to make a pair of earrings. At 12, she created her first ring using gold melted down from the religious medals she’d received at her Communion ceremony.[3]
De Castellane's formative years were spent in Paris.
During the early 1980s, Gilles Dufour often took the teenage de Castellane out to famed Parisian nightclubs such as Le Palace[3] where she first experimented with dressing up in playful, flamboyant and ultra-feminine styles, often sporting Mickey Mouse ears or a devil’s horns headband[2] and wearing lingerie on the outside of her clothing.