christian dior

Yves Saint Laurent – fashion designer of Haute Couture

Aug 312006

A very young Yves Saint Laurent with drawing

Yves Saint Laurent was born in 1936 in Algeria and died in June 2008.

Having won the first prize in the International Wool Secretariat contest in 1954, he went to work for Christian Dior as a young designer.

After Diors death in 1957, Saint Laurent became Haute Couture designer. The following year saw him win the Neiman-Marcus Award.

His creations have often caused a scandal, from the first see-through blouses (1968) to his perfume, Opium.

After fulfilling his military obligations he opened his own Haute Couture house in 1962 financed by Pierre Berge. He opened his Rive Gauche boutiques for women were in 1966 and a men’s wear line was added in 1974. In 1981 he was became a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York made him the first living designer to be so honoured.

Renowned for ethnic themes and bright colors Saint Laurent believes he is the last true couturier and maintains the highest standards of classic cut and Tailoring. He was presented with a Victoria and Albert award in 1995. In 1996 the year Saint Laurent became the first courturier to show his Haute Couture show live on the Internet he decided to stop making big fashion shows for his Pret-a-Porter collection after 30 years of doing so.

The company has had its troubles in 1996 Pierre Berge was fined for insider trading after selling his shares in the company before the release of poor trading figures.

Yves Saint Laurent is also the subject of a number of retrospective exhibitions including the Hermitage, St. Petersburg , Russia and Musee des Arts de la Mode, Louvre, Paris.

In January 2000, following the acquisition of Yves Saint Laurent and YSL Beauté by the Gucci Group, Designer Tom Ford assumed the position of Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and YSL Beauté. Ford works with all creative teams at YSL to define the overall image and positioning of the YSL brand including all product categories and communication activities. He refocused the brand with great success.

Tom Ford’s success in the fashion industry has been recognized by a number of awards including Womenswear Designer of the Year for Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche (2001) and Accessory Designer of the Year for Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche (2002)

http://ysl-hautecouture.com

11:50 am Fashion

Pierre Cardin visionery fashion designer

Aug 302006

Pierre Cardin Designer

Pierre Cardin has been revolutionising the world of fashion for more than half a century. He was born in Italy but is better known as a French designer of haute couture fashion.

On 16 October 2009, Pierre Cardin was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations.

Pierre Cardin is an enigmatic fashion figure with a career spanning over 6 decades. Born in 1922 Pierre Cardin arrived in Paris in 1945. He started to work for Paquin and then Schiaparelli made the acquaintance of Jean Cocteau and Christian Berard with whom he designed numerous costumes and masks for several films.

In 1946 he began to work for Christian Dior.

Four year later in 1950 Pierre Cardin started his own fashion house on the Rue Richepanse. By 1953 he had exhibited his first fashion collection and in 1954 his “bubble dresses” caught the imagination of the world.

A successful year Pierre Cardin opened his first Paris boutiques, Adam and Eve. On his first trip to Japan in 1957 he was made an honorary professor at the stylism school of Bunka Fukusoi . This same school in 1962 created the Pierre Cardin Prize awarded to the best designer of the year.Pierre Cardin created a worldwide fashion movvement by presenting for the first time in 1959 a collection of ready-to-wear for women at the Printemps department store in Paris . He was expelled from the Chambre Syndical because of this but was soon re-instated.

250 students presented his famous cylinder line collection for men in 1960. A year later, he started distributing ready-to-wear and accessories for men, and by 1963 he was doing the same for women. His first fashion collection for children was presented in Paris in 1966 and in that year he also opened his first childrens shop on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris .

In 1977 Pierre Cardin received the first of his three “Dé d’Or” for French Haute Couture, executed by Cartier, in honor of the most creative collection of the season. He also won this award in 1979 and 1982. Known for his experimental groundbreaking approach he was the first foreign couturier to present in China a fashion collection for men and women in 1979.

Pierre Cardin celebrated his 30 years of fashion creation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980 and inaugurated his new offices on 53 East 57th Street . The following year he opened a showroom in the Gardens of Temple in Peking . This event marked the explosion of his international reputation. The Sogetsu Kaikan Museum in 1982 hosted a general retrospective of the creations of Pierre Cardin spanning the previous 30 years. Awarded the Ascot Brun award in Milan as the most creative man of the year he went on to win a Fashion Oscar at the Paris Opera House. Cardin signed contract with the USSR in 1986 for the local production of ready-to-wear for men, women and children and in 1987, he opened a 10,000 square meter showroom. The Victor and Albert Museum in London in 1989 presented in the 20th Century Gallery a retrospective covering 40 years of women’s fashion and 30 years of men’s fashion. It went on to be shown in Canada , Mexico and China .

The 1990s again saw Pierre Cardin boast a number of firsts. Moscow 1991 saw Pierre Cardin present a fashion show on the Red Square before a crowd of 200,000. In 1993 Cardin presented his first fashion collections in Vietnam . The 26th Olympic Games in Atlanta saw him present his Evolutive fashion collection designe specially for the event. In 1997 the inauguration of a retrospective exhibit of 50 years of Pierre Cardin’s creations at the Espace Cardin was conducted.

The presentation of his eighth ready-to-wear fashion collection for women called Evolution Fall/Winter occurred in 2000. A retrospective exhibition took place in Tokyo the same year to celebrate a career spanning 50 years. On Jannuary 10 th 2003 a retrospective fashion show took place at the Palazzo Corsini ( Firenze ).

http://www.pierrecardin.com/

4:39 pm Fashion

John Galliano fashion designer of haute couture

Aug 292006

John Galliano Christian Dior 2011

John Galliano was born in 1960 in Gibraltar of a Gibraltan father and named Juan Carlos Antonio Galliano Guillén. At the age of 6 the Galliano family moved to Streatham in South London.

He graduated in fashion from City and East London College.

Then he attended St Martin’s College of Art and Design, where he graduated in 1984 with a first class honours degree. His graduation collection was titled ‘Les Incroyables’.

He was awarded British Designer of the Year in 1987 and again in 1994 and 1995.

In 1997, he shared the award with Alexander McQueen, his successor at Givenchy.

He left for Paris in the early 1990s.

At first, critical success did not translate to financial success and he was almost forced to declare bankruptcy.

John Galliano with Kate Moss

However, in 1995 Galliano became the first English man to head a French couture house, when he was put in charge of Givenchy.

Two years later he was granted control of the larger house of Christian Dior where he remains today.

On January 1, 2009, it was announced that Galliano was admitted to the French Legion of Honour with the rank of Chevalier.

He also creates ready to wear collections under his own name G Galliano.

http://www.johngalliano.fr/

4:26 pm Fashion

Christian Dior french fashion designer of Haute Couture

Aug 292006

Christian Dior (left) arrives in New York with Salvatore Ferragamo

Christian Dior (1905-1957) was born in Normandy, France.

Having studied political science, Dior began his design career selling sketches of his hat designs as these were being better received than his dress designs.

He was hired by Robert Piguet in 1938 and during the war served in the South of France.

Returning again to Paris in 1941 he worked for Lucien Lelong and in 1946 he was in a position to open his own house, backed by textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac.

His first fashion collection presented in 1947 was called “New Look” and featured rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and a very full skirt.

Christian Dior Spring Summer 2011

The signature of Dior creations at this point was opulence.

Dior was often described as the last great dictator of style and in the 1950s produced fashion collections with themes throughout this time such as classic suits, ballerina-length skirts, the H-line in 1954, and A- and Y-lines in 1955.

With his partner Jaques Rouet, Dior pioneered the development of license agreements in the fashion business.

By 1948, he had arranged licensed production of furs, socks, ties, perfumes, and clothing in regionally separate production centers. This undoubtedly contributed to the swift spreading of the brand throughout the globe.

He hired Yves Saint Laurent in 1953 as an assistant. Following Dior’s sudden death in 1957 from a 3rd heart attack, Saint Laurent became the head designer and introduced the trapeze dress in his first fashion collection for the house.

Yves Saint Laurent was called for military duty in 1960 and at this point Marc Bohan became head designer.

Gianfranco Ferre in turn replaced him in 1989.

In 1996 John Galliano joined Dior to the applause of the fashion world.

Galliano was seen as perfect for Dior as his romantic, feminine looks matched those qualities adopted by Dior in the 1940′s.

www.dior.com

1:18 pm Fashion

Adeline Andre french fashion designer

Aug 282006

Adeline Andre Fashion Designer

Since May 1997, Adeline Andre is an invited member of the Syndicate Chamber of Parisian Couture.

In 1970, after receiving her diploma from the School of the Syndicate Chamber of Parisian Couture, Adeline Andre entered the House of Christian Dior.

In 1981, Adeline Andre registered the pattern of her “three sleeve-hole” garment at the National Institute of Industrial Property in Paris and in 1982 at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.

A “three sleeve-hole” garment is now part of the museum collection of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New-York.

Adeline Andre’s first show, ladies ready-to-wear collection for fall-winter 83/84, was held on March 16th, 1983 at the Daniel Templon gallery.

Staged within a grand painting by Gerard Garouste, the guests, wearing the collection, posed for giant polaroid shots.

Up until March 1987, Adeline Andre presented her collections in places that had never before been used for fashion-shows, like the “Grant Salon” of the International Conference Center where the Treaty of Paris was signed, putting an end to the Vietnam War for example.

In these places, she presented her collections on models such as Anh Duong, Angela Wild, Dovanna, Terry Toye and Eugenie Vincent, whom she asked to mingle among the guests, creating a calm and intimate atmosphere as opposed to the podium shows of the time.

During the furor of padding and stretch in the fashion world, Adeline Andre presented tall and slender shapes with slight and svelte shoulders in fluid materials such as, silk crepes, wool satins, fine cashmere cloths–always dyed according to her personal colour range and also knits with rolled hems.

During the following years, she concentrated on creating designs for her private clientele, male and female, for whom she produced new made-to-measure collections, displayed for the first time at “Top of wear” parties, travelling private presentations in galleries, workshops or the salons of her friends in either Paris, London or New-York.

Adeline Andre adds some Finishing Touches 2010

In 1994, Adeline Andre moved into her atelier-boutique at 5 Rue Villehardouin, in the Marais, the old Paris quarter near Place des Vosges. As well as her ready-to-wear collections, each season, since 1995, she has presented a Couture collection.

Activities and Contact Details

Couture – Adeline Andre Haute Couture Collection

Mens Collection – Adeline Andre Made to Measure Mens Collection

ADELINE ANDRE Atelier
5, rue Villehardouin
75003 Paris
Tel: 00 (33) 01 42 78 88 54
Fax: 00(33) 09 54 43 53 21

12:09 pm Fashion