Gabrielle Aghion (née Hanoka; 3 March 1921 – 27 September 2014) was a French fashion designer and the founder of the French fashion house

Chloé Chloé () is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion. During the next year of 1953 Aghion joined forces with Jacques Lenoir, formally managing the business side of the brand, allowing Aghion to purely pursue the creative ...

. She is said to have coined the phrase "''

prêt-à-porter Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure Made-to-measure ( ...

''".

Career

Born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, the daughter of a cigarette factory manager, she met her husband, Raymond Aghion (1921–2009), when both were seven years old in elementary school. He was born into a wealthy family of cotton exporters, but displayed early stirrings of the

social consciousness Social consciousness or social awareness, is collective consciousness shared by individuals within a society.Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

and

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...

. Gaby launched

in 1952. Raymond opened an art gallery in 1956, specializing in modern art. According to the website of Chloé, Aghion rejected the stiff formality of 1950s fashion and created soft, feminine, body conscious clothes from fine fabrics, and called them "luxury prêt-à-porter". Unique for their time, they were beautifully made clothes available off the rack. She set up her workshop in a maid's room above her large flat. In 1953, Gaby Aghion joined forces with Jacques Lenoir – he ran the business side and she ran the creative side. The duo put on the first Chloé show in 1956 at a breakfast at the

Café de Flore The Café de Flore () is one of the oldest coffeehouses in Paris, celebrated for its famous clientele, which in the past included high-profile writers and philosophers. It is located at the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue Saint-Beno ...

, the epicentre of young intellectual Parisians of the 1940s and 1950s. Aghion, later retired from the public eye, said: "Everything was yet to be invented, and this thrilled me." Aghion hired

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 ...

early in his career, and other emerging fashion designers. Her son, Philippe, recalls Lagerfeld coming to the company in the mid-1960s: "When he arrived from he house of

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 ...

, Karl was a shy individual. He and my mother made a fantastic team. He came into the spirit of Chloé."Then And Now. Gaby Aghion founder and Clare Waight Keller designer of Chloe SA.
Diderich, Joelle. ''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion". Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides inf ...

'', 28 September 2012. Gaby Aghion continued to run the house until 1985, when

was bought-out by Dunhill Holdings (now Compagnie Financière Richemont Group). She died in Paris on 27 September 2014.

Awards

* French Legion of Honor (2013)

References

www.linkedin.com/in/maghion

External links

Chloé website''Chloe''
by Helene Schoumann (published by Assouline, 2003).

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 17 October 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aghion, Gaby 1921 births 2014 deaths French fashion designers French women fashion designers Recipients of the Legion of Honour Artists from Alexandria Businesspeople from Paris Egyptian emigrants to France Egyptian Jews Jewish fashion designers