''For the French general and diplomat, see

Claude Carra Saint-Cyr ''For the French milliner, see Claude Saint-Cyr'', ''For the Marshal of France see Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr'' Claude Carra Saint-Cyr (born 28 July 1760 in Lyon, died 5 January 1834 in Vailly-sur-Aisne) was a French general and diplomat, noted ...

'' Claude Saint-Cyr – sometimes Claude St-Cyr or Claude St. Cyr – (née Simone Naudet, 1911–2002) was a French milliner who worked in both Paris and London between the 1930s and 1960s, also establishing a worldwide reputation for her hats. She collaborated with many leading designers, including

Jean Patou Jean Patou (; 27 September 1887 – 8 March 1936) was a French fashion designer, and founder of the Jean Patou brand. Early life Patou was born in Paris, France in 1887. Patou's family's business was tanning and furs. Patou worked with his ...

and

Norman Hartnell Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell, KCVO (12 June 1901 – 8 June 1979) was a leading British fashion designer, best known for his work for the ladies of the royal family. Hartnell gained the Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth in 1940, an ...

. She was a key supplier of hats to the royal household from the 1950s on. One of her most notable commissions was the 1960 wedding veil of

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

; at this event she also made hats for

The Queen Mother ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

and the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. After closing her own salon, she continued to act as an advisor to other design houses until the mid 1990s.

Background and early career

Simone Naudet was born in 1911 in Paris. The daughter of a casino worker, she began her millinery training at the age of 18, later working with notable Paris designers, including Jean Patou,

Marie-Louise Carven Marie-Louise Carven (31 August 1909 – 8 June 2015), born Carmen de Tommaso, was a French fashion designer who founded the house of Carven in 1945. She was noted for her designs for petite women, her use of lightweight fabrics such as lace and ...

and Rose Descat. She spent some time training in London, also changing her professional name to Claude Saint-Cyr. She married the interior designer Georges Martin.

Establishment of own millinery business

Saint-Cyr established her own millinery salon in 1937 in

Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré () is a street located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Relatively narrow and nondescript, especially in comparison to the nearby Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is cited as being one of the most luxu ...

, Paris, and this was joined by a shop in London in 1950. During the 1950s, she gained a reputation as one of the leading milliners of London and Paris. By 1957, her client list comprised many members of the British royal family, notably the Queen, Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the

Duchess of Windsor Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986), was an American socialite and wife of the former King Edward VIII. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a ...

. Other clients included Queen Soroya of Iran,

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (15 February 1906 – 1 July 2000) was the fourth and last wife of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III. The couple married thirteen months after the Aga Khan III and his third wife were divorced by mutual consent. The ...

, actresses

Martine Carol Martine Carol (born Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer; 16 May 1920 – 6 February 1967) was a French film actress. Career Born Maryse Mourer (or Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer) in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, (France), she studied acting und ...

and

Eleanor Parker Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films '' Caged'' (1950), ''Detective Story'' (1951), and ''Interrupted Melody'' (1955), the first ...

, and many American tourists. Part of her success in London may have been due to her close working association with the royal household's couturier Norman Hartnell, who chose her to make his hats just before the 1953

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

. He enabled Saint-Cyr to set up her millinery salon within his London fashion house. ''

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

'' described Saint-Cyr's association with the royal family and Hartnell in 1960: "She drives to the Palace or Clarence House in Norman Hartnell's Rolls-Royce and etiquette demands that she go hatless". The article added that all her royal customers spoke to their Parisian milliner in French during fittings.

Millinery innovations

Among the millinery innovations Saint-Cyr is said to have devised, were the oblique hat – in which one side of the brim is angled, enabling decorative details to be placed on the crown. The oblique-brim hat has remained a favoured style for the Queen. She was also among the leading exponents of the 'cocktail hat' that came into vogue during the wartime years – this was typically a confection involving black silk and netting that could be worn with eveningwear. In the 1950s, she helped to revive the fashion for the draped turban producing a supple felt design in 1956 that covered the ears and rose to a peak at the back of the head. From 1950, Saint-Cyr collaborated with her husband Georges Martin to create a variety of hats and garments that incorporated traditional

Aubusson tapestry Aubusson tapestry is tapestry manufactured at Aubusson, in the upper valley of the Creuse in central France. The term often covers the similar products made in the nearby town of Felletin, whose products are often treated as "Aubusson". The i ...

– an idea inspired after Martin used tapestry to re-cover chairs in Saint-Cyr's salon. She also produced a series of hat designs in collaboration with her husband. The first collection was known as Aubusson and was succeeded by others – in all, over 160 hats were produced over the succeeding four years. For the designs to translate into headgear, particularly fine weaves had to be used and the weavers were taught how to build a hat.

International success

By the mid 1950s, Saint-Cyr's reputation as a milliner was so great that reproductions of her Paris originals were created under licence, alongside those of leading couturiers such as

Cristóbal Balenciaga , birth_name = Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre , birth_date = , birth_place = Getaria, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Xàbia, Spain , resting_place = Getaria Cemetery , education = , label_name = Balenciaga , ...

. As well as designing for Norman Hartnell in London, she was producing models for Paris fashion houses such as Dessès. In London, her designs appeared at the fashion shows of the

Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers (also known as IncSoc, Inc Soc and ISFLD) was a membership organisation founded in 1942 to promote the British fashion and textile industry and create luxury couture to sell abroad for the war ...

. At the fashion show for autumn 1959, for example, she showed a line of high-crowned hats – many in velvet – to complement Hartnell's two-colour tweed suits and fur-trimmed and fur-collared coats.

Royal weddings

Saint-Cyr was chosen to produce headgear for the wedding of Princess Margaret to

Antony Armstrong-Jones Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017), was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue'', '' Vanity Fa ...

in May 1960. Not only did she produce the veil worn by Princess Margaret, but also the rose-trimmed and veiled turquoise model worn by the Queen and the cream osprey-feather hat worn by the Queen Mother. Some three years later, Saint-Cyr once again designed hats for the Queen Mother, Queen and Princess Margaret at the wedding of Princess Alexandra and

Angus Ogilvy Sir Angus James Bruce Ogilvy (14 September 1928 – 26 December 2004) was a British businessman. He is best known as the husband of Princess Alexandra of Kent, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Ogilvy is also remembered for his role in a b ...

Later career and legacy

Saint-Cyr closed her salon in 1964, but began working with French milliner

Jean Barthet Jean Barthet (1920–2000) was a French milliner who first rose to prominence in the 1950s as hat maker to Hollywood and French film stars, also designing hats for films such as '' The Young Girls of Rochefort''. He helped to define fashionable h ...

– a supplier of hats to celebrities such as

Princess Grace of Monaco Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. Kelly ...

and

Maria Callas Maria Callas . (born Sophie Cecilia Kalos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her ''bel cant ...

. This working relationship continued for the succeeding eight years, after which she retired from millinery design but continued to act as a consultant to bridal design houses until the mid 1990s. Examples of Saint-Cyr's hats are held by a number of museums worldwide, including the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York. In 2009, her designs were among those featured in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

's ''Hats: An Anthology'' – an exhibition curated by Stephen Jones. In 2013-14, her hats were exhibited in Florence's

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

, alongside designs by

Philip Treacy Philip Anthony Treacy (born 26 May 1967) is an Irish haute couture milliner, or hat designer, who has been mostly based in London for his career, and who was described by ''Vogue'' magazine as "perhaps the greatest living milliner". In 2000, T ...

and

Caroline Reboux Caroline Reboux (circa 1840–1927) was a Parisian milliner and French fashion designer. She opened her first boutique at 23 rue de la paix in Paris in 1865, which she continued to operate throughout her life. Reboux opened other shops in P ...

References

External links

Green silk and net hat, gift of the Brooklyn Museum in 2009, now Metropolitain Museum of Art, c. 1950Feather-trimmed pillbox hat at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, c. 1952Hat by Claude St-Cyr, 1953 at Getty ImagesSummer hat in the Fine Arts Museums of San FranciscoPrincess Alexandra's wedding on British PathéClaude St Cyr hat (fashion illustration) for ''The Lady'' magazine at Victoria and Albert Museum archiveFashion illustration for ''The Lady'' magazine at Victoria and Albert Museum archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Cyr, Claude 1911 births 2002 deaths Fashion designers from Paris French milliners 1930s fashion 1940s fashion 1950s fashion 1960s fashion 1970s fashion