Christina Oxenberg

Christina Oxenberg
Born (1962-12-27) December 27, 1962
New York City, NY, US
Occupation
  • Writer
  • Fashion designer
Years active 1986–present
Spouse(s) former Damian Elwes
Parent(s) Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia
Website wooldomination.com

Christina Oxenberg (Serbian: Кристина Оксенберг, born December 27, 1962) is a Serbian-American writer, humorist, and fashion designer.[1][2][3] She has written 7 books,[4] and her writing has been featured in magazines and publications like Allure, The Sunday Times, Penthouse, and others.[5] Her two knitwear clothing lines, "Christina Oxenberg" and "Ox," have appeared in Barneys, Bloomingdale's, and luxury boutiques throughout the world.[2][5][6] Oxenberg is also the daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and is a descendant of the Serbian House of Karageorgevic.[1][7]

Early life

Christina Oxenberg was born on December 27, 1962 in New York City to HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.[7] Her parents separated when she was 3, and she moved to London along with her mother and sister. Growing up, Christina attended 14 different schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Spain.[1][2][8] She graduated from the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado in 1981.[1]

Career

After high school, Oxenberg worked various jobs in New York ranging from a secretary to a roller-rink attendant. She would then go on a backpacking trip around the world before returning to New York City. Upon her return, Oxenberg secured a job at Studio 54.[9] Between 1984 and 1985, she worked as a research assistant for historian, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, on his book Blenheim Revisited.[10] In 1986, she published her first book, Taxi, a collection of celebrity anecdotes and personal observations revolving around experiences in taxicabs. In Taxi, Andy Warhol, Bob Costas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and numerous others are featured.[9]

Oxenberg married painter, Damian Elwes, near Amman, Jordan in 1986. The two traveled frequently to places like Costa Rica, Morocco, Paris, Colombia, and elsewhere. Elwes would paint and Oxenberg would promote his art. They later divorced.[1][11]

In 1994, Simon & Schuster commissioned Oxenberg to write a semi-autobiographical novel that would eventually be published as Royal Blue. The novel was released in 1997 in the United States and was published by Quartet in the United Kingdom in 1998. The book is fictional but contains true elements.[1][7][12][13] The book received generally favorable reviews from publications like The Independent[13] The Guardian,[14] and The Times.[15] As a result of the book, Oxenberg appeared on the cover of New York Magazine[7] and was profiled in People.[1] It was called "darkly funny" by the Chicago Tribune.[16]

In 2000, Oxenberg went on hiatus from writing and took a job at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance.[17] Through that job she met Fernando Alvarez, a Peruvian businessman living in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The two discussed the possibility of a clothing line using Oxenberg's name. They designed, produced and wholesaled a collection of luxury knitwear. The pair used exclusively deluxe fibers such as the guanaco from Patagonia, the suri-alpaca from the high Andes and the muskox from the indigenous population in the North West Territories of Canada. From 2002 to 2010, Oxenberg produced two clothing lines (Christina Oxenberg and Ox) and her items were sold in Barneys, Bloomingdale's, and luxury boutiques throughout the world.[2][6]

Oxenberg would go on to self-publish several collections of short stories between 2010 and 2014, including Do These Gloves Make My Ass Look Fat?, Life is Short: Read Short Stories, and When in Doubt...Double the Dosage.[4][18][19] Additionally, her writing has appeared in publications like Allure, Penthouse, The Sunday Times, Takimag (where she published a weekly column),[5] The Huffington Post (where she currently publishes weekly columns), and others.[20]

In 2011, she moved from the Northeastern United States to Key West, Florida. Many of the stories in her short story collections like Will Write for Compliments and Life is Short: Read Short Stories are about or set in Key West. Since 2012 Oxenberg has contributed articles to Key West weekly magazine Konk Life.[21][22][23] In 2014, Oxenberg helped organize a visit by John Hemingway (Ernest Hemingway's grandson) to David Wolkowsky's Tennessee Williams Collection.[24]

In 2015, Oxenberg moved to Serbia for a year to write and research her book, Royal Dynasty – An Insider's History of the Serbian Royal Family, which was published in Serbian in 2015 and English in 2016 by the publisher, Laguna. For her work, Oxenberg received an award from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2016.[25][26]

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

Autobiographies

Ancestry

Christina Oxenberg is a direct descendant of Karageorge, the modern liberator of Serbia and founder of the Karageorgevic Dynasty.[25] She is also a direct descendant of George I of Greece and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.[27] As of 2011, Oxenberg was estimated to be 3,939th in the line of succession to the British throne.[28] She is also descended from King George II of Great Britain, Catherine II the Great, and Genghis Khan. She is distantly related to Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, and Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's wife, Natalia Pushkina.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 O'Neill, Anne-Marie (September 8, 1997). "Daughter Dearest". People. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gupte, Pranay (November 14, 2005). "A Princess Fashions Her Own Global Brand". The New York Sun. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  3. ↑ Barker, Olivia (August 13, 2013). "Gwyneth Paltrow skewered by fellow authors". USA Today. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Christina Oxenberg". Amazon.com. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Plasse, Sabina Dana (November 17, 2010). "Polite society has its critics". Idaho Mountain Express. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Ellis, Kori (May 14, 2008). "Christina Oxenberg Shawl". The Gloss. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Mason, Christopher (July 21, 1997). "Royal Flush". New York. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  8. ↑ Thomas, Jr., Robert McG. (April 19, 1972). "She's Actually in Favor of Traveling With Children". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Brown, Chip (October 5, 1986). "Oh, Taxi!". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  10. ↑ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (1985). Blenheim revisited: The Spencer-Churchills and their palace. Beaufort Books. ISBN 978-0825302978.
  11. ↑ "June Ferguson's Royal Genealogy Page". RootsWeb.com. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Royal Blue by Christina Oxenberg". Kirkus Reviews. June 1, 1997. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  13. 1 2 Thackray, Rachelle (December 13, 1997). "Book: Loitering with good intentions". The Independent. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Book Review "Royal Blue"". The Guardian. February 5, 1998.
  15. ↑ Koning, Christina (November 29, 1997). ""Right First Time" Review of "Royal Blue".". The Times.
  16. ↑ Slater, Joyce R. (May 25, 1997). "A Princess' Daughter, A Matron and a Parent on the Run". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ Kissel, William (October 1, 2004). "Wardrobe: Spinning Yarn". Robb Report. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  18. ↑ Kellogg, Carolyn (August 13, 2013). "Gwyneth Paltrow annoys fellow author at book signing event". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Christina Oxenberg: the woman who pretended to be Gwyneth Paltrow". The Guardian. August 15, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Entries by Christina Oxenberg". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  21. ↑ Jenna Stauffer (host), Christina Oxenberg (guest) (February 8, 2012). Good Morning Florida Keys with Jenna Stauffer. WEYW-LP. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  22. ↑ Michael Shields (host), Christina Oxenberg (guest) (May 24, 2013). Christina Oxenberg Kristina Karadjordjević. KONK (AM). Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  23. ↑ Michael Shields (host), Christina Oxenberg (guest) (May 24, 2013). Christina Oxenberg on Konk Broadcasting Feb 7, 2012 Kristina Karadjordjević. KONK (AM). Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  24. ↑ "John Hemingway Visits David Wolkowski's Tennessee Williams Collection at Custom's House" (PDF). Conch Color. April 24, 2014. pp. 24–25. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  25. 1 2 "Crown Prince, Crown Princess and Prince Alexander attend "Royal Dynasty – Karadjordjevic Family Return Home" book launch". Royal Family of Serbia. December 10, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Nagrada "Vidovdansko pero" Kristini Oksenberg Karađorđević" (in Serbian). Laguna. June 29, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  27. ↑ Ulmann, E.F. (July 2010). "Between the Covers". Avenue. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  28. ↑ Lewis, David (January 1, 2011). "Persons eligible to succeed to the British Throne as of 1 Jan 2011". WARGS. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Christina Oxenberg". Genealogics.com. Retrieved September 15, 2016.

External links

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