Mariette Ghiai-Chamlou was born in Brussels, Belgium out of a white Russian family who had escaped the Soviet revolution.
Although her mother was a relative of the famed Trotsky, they had to run into exile due to their close ties with the Imperial family as her maternal grand father was a high officer of the Tsar.

After completing her studies at the Athenee Royale d'Uccle, she continued her graduate studies at
the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts where she studied drawing, painting, fashion design, sculpture and double majored in Interior Design as well as Fashion Design with high honor and various National prizes and distinctions.

In 1953, she decided to join her husband Heydar Ghiai-Chamlou whom she has met and married in Belgium and continued her carrier in Iran in collaboration with her husband.

M.G.C. quickly gained trust and admiration in the Architectural milieu and was commissioned various interior design projects among which the decoration for the palace of HIH Princess Chams Pahlavi, the older sister of HIM the Shah of Iran.
When the birth of Prince Reza Cyrus Pahlavi ( Heir to the throne) was announced, she was in charge of decorating Princess Chahnaz's Palace as well as the Nursery that was to room the newly born Heir.

M.G.C. went on to decorate many luxury homes designed by her husband while creating mosaic frescoes and various avant garde Architectural elements widely praised in the early sixties.
She also spent some seven years in the productions of voluminous specifications for the interior design of the Imperial palaces for HIM the Shah of Iran.

In 1976, M.G.C. Produced a book on her husband's design of the Senate House and attracted much praise from many heads of states. Her book has been incorporated at the US library of congress as well as most major universities and schools of Architecture.
During that same year, M.G.C. was offered a professorship at the Farah Pahlavi University where she taught comparative history of furniture design.

When the 1979 Islamic Coup d'Etat deposed the Imperial Family, M.G.C. followed her husband into exile in Europe.
She then partnered with her three Architect sons into reopening her husband's firm in San Francisco and is currently living in Paris, France.

M.G.C. is actively participating in various cultural and humanitarian activities.
She has served as vice president of the Farhang-e-Iran foundation and remained an active member of the Rudaki Association until 2008.
She is also hosting an Artistic and Scientific Forum at her home in Paris every month.
In January of 2009, she decided to embark on compiling her Fashion Design drawings and concepts
into a book which is due to be published within a few years.