Grès was a French

haute couture ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

fashion house founded by

Madame Grès Madame Grès (1903–1993), also known as Alix Barton and Alix, was a leading French couturier and costume designer, founder of haute couture fashion house Grès as well as the associated Parfums Grès. Remembered as the "Sphinx of Fashion", Gr ...

in 1942. Parfums Grès is the associated perfume house, which still exists, and is now based in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Germaine Émilie Krebs (1903–1993), known as Alix Barton and later as "

", relaunched her design house under the name Grès in Paris in 1942. Prior to this, she worked as "Alix" or "Alix Grès" during the 1930s. Formally trained as a sculptor, she produced haute couture designs for an array of fashionable women, including the

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Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...

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, and

Dolores del Río María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...

. Her signature was cut-outs on gowns that made exposed skin part of the design, yet still had a classical, sophisticated feel. She was renowned for being the last of the

houses to establish a

ready-to-wear 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 or bespoke clothing ...

line, which she called a "prostitution".Biography at Parfums Grès official website
. Retrieved 26 April 2006. The name Grès was a partial

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of her husband's first name and alias. He was Serge Czerefkov, a Russian painter, who left her soon after the house's creation. Grès enjoyed years of critical successes but, after Grès herself sold the business in the 1980s to Yagi Tsucho, a Japanese company, they hired Lloyd Klein as the artistic director for the entire house supervising 46 licencies between Paris and Japan, at the time Klein was offered one of the highest salaries of per month and an annual fee of 12 million FRF after the death of Madame Grès, Lloyd Klein left the house to continue his collections in New York. By 2012, the last Grès store in Paris was closed.

Parfums Grès

Grès's signature fragrance was ''Cabochard'', created by Bernard Chant, and launched in 1958. , ''Cabochard'' is still being manufactured and retailed. Other perfumes, launched after the sale of the company, include: * ''Cabotine ''(1990) * ''Folie Douce'' (1997) * ''Cabaret'' (2003) * ''Caline'' (2005) * ''Caline Night'' (2006)

References

Biography

* Laurence Benaïm, ''Madame Grès'', Editions Assouline, 1999 (in French) * Patricia Mears, ''Madame Grès: Sphinx of Fashion'', Yale University Press, 2008

History

Parfums Grès

References

Biography

Further reading