Mathilde de Morny

An 1882 magazine article describes the newlywed marquise as wearing "a dress of the very palest mauve, mixed tulle and silk," adding that Morny "is not exactly pretty, but has a most original face, being very pale, with a very set expression, the darkest eyes possible, and quantities of very fair hair.

Extravagant conduct made Morny a celebrity of the Belle Époque and despite her 1881 marriage to the well-known gay man Jacques Godart, 6th Marquis de Belbeuf (1850–1906)—whom she divorced in 1903—Morny was open about preferring women.

Morny wore a full three-piece suit (which, as with trousers, was forbidden in France for anyone but men),[2] had short hair, and smoked a cigar.

[3][4][5] Morny also inspired the character "La Chevalière" in Colette's novel Le Pur et l'impur, described as dressed "in dark masculine attire, belying any notion of gaiety or bravado... High born, she slummed it like a prince."

On 21 June 1910, the couple bought the manor of "Rozven" at Saint-Coulomb in Brittany (its owner, Baron du Crest, refused the sale because Mathilde was not dressed as a woman and so Colette signed the deed instead)—on the same day the first chamber of the tribunal de grande instance for the Seine departement pronounced Colette's divorce from Henry Gauthier-Villars.