Sure, Daphne Guinness is the patron saint of haute couture and impractical footwear, but a meaty new profile in New York magazine digs beneath the layers of tulle and embroidery to uncover not a just a bored heiress, but a true eccentric. A few revelations explain a great deal about the latter-day icon, such as her picturesque childhood summering in a monastery next to Salvador Dalí and Man Ray. And she’s not above bedazzling a good pair of hooker shoes. But our favorite glimpse behind the bravura is a how a newly divorced Guinness got her groove back, not through some epic shopping spree, but a stint at a clown—aka bouffon—school in London. It still doesn’t explain the Franken-streak in her hair, but it makes us love her all the more.