In her first marriage, she was Yakovleva du Plessis, and in her second, Yakovleva du Plessis-Lieberman.

In July 1941, a German ace shot down a French plane over the Mediterranean Sea, piloted by Lieutenant Bertrand du Plessis. His widow, Tatiana Yakovleva, received the hero's order from Charles de Gaulle. Tatiana was the passionate love of Vladimir Mayakovsky, a friend of Marlene Dietrich, and an inspiration for Christian Dior. In 1925, she managed to leave Russia with the help of Mr. Citroën, the owner of the car factory, who was friends with her father, who created car sketches.

In Paris, 19-year-old Tatiana immediately immersed herself in high society. Her beauty quickly opened doors to the best runways in the capital of France. Soon her face adorned posters all over the city. Among her friends were Sergei Prokofiev, with whom she played the piano, Fyodor Shalyapin, who gave her gifts, and Vladimir Mayakovsky, who courted her. However, she chose the pilot du Plessis, and after his death, she married Alexander Lieberman. They moved to the USA, where Alex headed Vogue magazine for many years.

Tatiana worked at Saks on Fifth Avenue, serving famous ladies like Coco Chanel and Edith Piaf. Her home became a meeting place for those who did not want to return to the Soviet Union. She supported Mikhail Baryshnikov and predicted Joseph Brodsky's Nobel Prize win. Yakovleva played an important role in the careers of Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, about whom the press began to write after her recommendations.

Tatiana is attributed with the phrase: "Mink, only for football, but for ladies, sable." Before her 85th birthday, joking about her age, she told her husband: "Be a gentleman, let me go to the Lord first." A few days later, on April 28, 1991, she passed away.