Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, the Royal Dressmaker

  Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia was born on was born 18 April, 1890 in Saint Petersburg. She was the first child and only daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. 

Maria Pavlovna was barely two years old when her mother died due to complications after giving birth to a second child, the Grand Duke Dimitri in 1891. The siblings have developed a strong bond with each other, one which lasted until Dimitri's death. Despite being raised by governesses and tutors, Grand Duke Paul doted on his two children. In 1895, he took on a mistress, woman, Olga Valerianova von Pistolkors, and in 1902, he married her amidst the disapproval of Czar Nicholas II. Paul was banished from Russia and the two children were placed under the custody of Paul's older brother, Grand Duke Serge and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. The couple treated the parentless children as their own. Maria Pavlovna was barely 18 years old when she was betrothed to Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland. They were married in 1908 and the couple had one son, Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland later Count Bernadotte of Wisborg. The marriage was unhappy, though, and ended in divorce in 1914.

At the height of World War I, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna served as a nurse. She remained in Russia amidst the fall of the Romanovs in 1917. In September 1917, she married 

Prince Sergei Putyatin. They had one son, Prince Roman Sergeievich Putyatin, who died in infancy. The couple fled revolutionary Russia through Ukraine in July 1918.

Following the escape from Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna lived an itinerant life. After a stint in Bucharest and London she settled in Paris in 1920, where she ran Kitmir, an embroidering fashion atelier that achieved some level of success. In 1923, she divorced her second husband. In 1928, she sold Kitmir and emigrated to the United States. While  in New York City, she published two books of memoirs: The Education of a Princess (1930), and A Princess in Exile (1932).

In 1942, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna moved to Argentina where she spent the wartime yesrs and became a popular figure among the Russian emigres in Buenos Aires. She returned permanently to Europe in 1949, where she lived in Prince Lennart's home in Germany or paid regular visits to friends. She died in Konstanz, Germany, in 1958.