Fashion Reverie takes a look back at French couturier Jean Patou. French couturier Jean Patou is credited for invented knitted swimwear, the tennis skirts, and popularizing the cardigan.
Jean Patou
Born in Normandy, France in 1880, Jean Patou moved to Paris in 1910 with the intent on becoming a couturier. Patou opened a small couture house in 1912, which was re-opened in 1919 after his service in World War I. In the mid -1920s Patou launched three perfume fragrances created by Henri Almeras. Patou’s perfume business saved his luxury clothing business after the Great Crash.
Patou’s perfume fragrances are well-known today, with the perfume “Joy” being the most recognizable, and one of the most expensive. In 1972, the House of Patou launched “1000,” a heavy, earthy floral perfume, based on a rare osmanthus.
Since the death of Jean Patou in 1936, his couture house has been directed by a variety of well-known designers from Marc Bohan (1954-56) to Karl Lagerfeld (1960-63) to Jean Paul Gaultier (1971-73) to Christian Lacroix in 1981. After the departure of Lacroix the House of Patou discontinued it haute couture collections. In 2011, the Patou perfumes were acquired by Designer Parfums, LTD, a UK‒based company.
—Staff
Fashion Reverie looks back at the career of iconic supermodel Jerry Hall. One of the first supermodels, Jerry Hall at 6`0 helped usher in the era of the glamour supermodels of the 70s and the 80s. Hall helped lay the path for legendary supermodels Janice Dickinson, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Cindy Crawford.
At the age of 16 Jerry Hall moved to Paris with insurance money she received from a car accident. After forming a relationship with famed fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, Hall’s modeling career took off. By 1977, she had appeared on forty magazine covers, including Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Italia, and Cosmopolitan, and was earning up to a $1,000 a day. Though early in her career, Jerry Hall was the face of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium perfume and Revlon Cosmetics, around the same time Hall posed on the album sleeve of Roxy Music’s 1975 Sirens.
Fashion Reverie looks back at fashion designer Maud Frizon. In the 1960s Maud Frizon started her career in fashion as a model for the Parisian haute couture houses of Jean Patou, Nina Ricci, and Andrés Courréges. Unhappy with the shoes that were provided for models at that time for runway shows and editorial shoots, Maud Frizon in 1969 began to design shoes and opened a boutique on the fashionable St. Germain des Pres district of Paris.
Seen as a forerunner of Manolo Blahnik, Maud Frizon shoes were an immediate success. Frizon shoes were chic, sexy, showy, and at times, cutting-edge and unorthodox. A favorite shoe of Brigitte Bardot, Maud Frizon was one of the first designers to combine expensive leathers and exotic skins with non-traditional, less expensive fabrics.
Maud Frizon and her husband to Luigi De Marco sold the Frizon brand to Helene Wajnblum-Liu and her husband in 1999. The firm remains headquartered in Paris, with boutiques in Paris, Brussels, and Hong Kong.
On the second inauguration of President Barack H. Obama, Fashion Reverie looks back at the first lady, Michelle Obama’s gown from the 2008 inauguration. Designed by Jason Wu, the first lady’s inaugural gown in 2008 was a white, one-shoulder silk chiffon gown embellished with Swarovski crystals.
On the eve of award season, Fashion Flashback looks back at the iconic Hollywood costumer, Edith Head. In a career that lasted six decades, Edith Head was nominated for 35 Academy Awards and won eight times—more times than any other woman—with her last win for her work on The Sting.
Edith Head designed costumes for many leading ladies of Hollywood’s golden age which included Audrey Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Katherine Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Bette Davis, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Olivia De Havilland, Kim Novak, Rita Hayworth, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Lamour, and Anne Baxter.
