Betty Catroux is a fashion icon who has been a muse to both Yves Saint Laurent and Tom Ford, famed for her long white-blond hair, lanky body, gaunt features, and androgynous appearance.

She is the daughter of Carmen Saint, a Brazilian socialite prominent in Paris, and Elim O'Shaughnessy , an American diplomat. The couple met in the 1940s, when O'Shaughnessy was posted to the American embassy in Rio de Janeiro under ambassador Jefferson Caffery .

Catroux is the wife of noted French interior decorator François Catroux . The couple's daughter Daphne is married to Count Charles Morant .

Catroux and Saint Laurent met, according to her, in a "very, very gay" nightclub in Paris in the 1960s and have been friends ever since. She reportedly inspired Saint Laurent to begin dressing women in clothes inspired by men's tailoring, including the famous "le smoking" tuxedo.