![Jacques Fath with wife 1950](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Jacques_Fath_with_wife_1950.jpg)
Jacques Fath (6 September 1912 in
Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the northern Île-de-France Regions of France, region of France. It is a part of the affluent outer suburbs of northwestern Paris, from its ...
, France – 13 November 1954 in Paris, France)
was a French
fashion designer
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
who was considered one of the three dominant influences on
postwar
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
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 ...
, the others being
Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses a ...
and
Pierre Balmain
Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain (; 18 May 1914 – 29 June 1982) was a French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house Balmain (fashion house), Balmain. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dre ...
. The
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
Georges Fath was his great-grandfather.
Career
The son of André Fath, an Alsatian-Flemish
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
agent, Fath came from a creative family. His paternal great-grandparents, Caroline and
Georges Fath, were fashion illustrators and writers, and his paternal grandfather, Rene-Maurice Fath, was a landscape painter.
Fath presented his first collection in 1937, working out of a two-room salon on Rue de la Boetie. The studio was later moved to a second location on Rue Francois Premier in 1940 before settling into a third location at 39 Avenue Pierre-ler-de-Serbie in 1944. Among his models was
Lucie Daouphars
Lucie Daouphars (1922-1963) was a French fashion model known as Lucky, who worked extensively for Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of t ...
(1921 or 1922–1963), a.k.a. Lucky, a former welder who eventually became the top house model for
Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses a ...
.
A self-taught designer who learned his craft from studying museum exhibitions and books about fashion, Fath hired a number of young designers as assistants and apprentices, some of which later went on to form their own houses, including
Hubert de Givenchy
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy (; 21 February 1927 – 10 March 2018) was a French aristocrat and fashion designer who founded the luxury fashion and perfume house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the p ...
,
Guy Laroche
Guy Laroche () (16 July 1921 – 17 February 1989) was a French fashion designer and founder of the eponymous company.
Biography
Laroche was born in La Rochelle, and began his career in millinery. From 1949, Laroche worked for Jean Dessè ...
, and
Valentino Garavani
Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (; born 11 May 1932), known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, a ...
.
A popular and occasionally innovative designer known for dressing "the chic young Parisienne", Fath utilized such materials as hemp sacking and sequins made of walnut and almond shells. His 1950 collection was called Lily, and its skirts were shaped to resemble flowers. For eveningwear, he advocated velvet gowns. During World War II, Fath was known for "wide fluttering skirts" which, The New York Times explained, "he conceived for the benefit of women forced to ride bicycles during gasoline rationing". His clients included
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...
,
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, ...
, and
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...
, who wore a Fath dress for her wedding to Prince
Aly Khan
Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan (13 June 1911 – 12 May 1960), known as Aly Khan, was a Pakistani diplomat of Iranian and Italian descent. He was the son of the Aga Khan III, and the father of Aga Khan IV.
A socialite, racehorse owner and jockey, ...
.
Jacques Fath also dressed
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón (; ; 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952), better known as just Eva Perón or by the nickname Evita (), was an Argentine politician, activist, actress, and philanthropist who served as First Lady of Argentina from June 194 ...
. In one of the few remaining paintings of the 1940s and 1950s not destroyed by the
Revolución Libertadora
''Revolución Libertadora'' (; ''Liberating Revolution'') was the coup d'état that ended the second presidential term of Juan Perón in Argentina, on 16 September 1955.
Background
President Perón was first elected in 1946. In 1949, a ...
in 1955 (three years after Evita's death), when Perón was ousted from power, Evita is depicted beside General Perón wearing a white evening dress designed by Fath. This same dress is showcased beside the painting on a mannequin under a protected glass cover in the Museo del Bicentenario in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fashion house
The Fath design house closed in 1957, three years after Fath died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
,
which he'd been diagnosed with in 1952. It was operated in its last days by his widow, who presented her first well-regarded collection for the fashion house in 1955 and who worked with three of her husband's former associates: Catherine Brivet (who previously had worked for
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret (20 April 1879 – 30 April 1944, Paris, France) was a French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake haute couture house.
Early life and care ...
,
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 ...
,
Pierre Balmain
Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain (; 18 May 1914 – 29 June 1982) was a French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house Balmain (fashion house), Balmain. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dre ...
,
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...
, and
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
, ...
); Pierrey Metthey; and Suzanne Renoult (a fabric expert who had worked for
Lucien Lelong
Lucien Lelong (; 11 October 1889 – 11 May 1958) was a French couturier who was prominent from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Career
Born in Paris as the son of Arthur Lelong, the owner of a fashion store, he trained at the Hautes Etudes de Commerc ...
;
Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli ( , also , ; 10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was a fashion designer from an Italian aristocratic background.
She created the house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she managed from the 1930s to the 1950s. ...
; and
Gaston Worth). After the company's haute couture operations ceased, it went into business producing perfumes, gloves, hosiery, and other accessories.
The company has produced a number of scents, including Jacques Fath L"Homme (1998), Yin (1999), Yang (1999), Fath de Fath (1953, reformulated and relaunched in 1993), Chasuble (1945), Expression (1977), Canasta (1950), Iris Gris (1946), Fath's Love (1968), and Green Water (1947 but reformulated and re-released in 1993). The fragrance license was held by L'Oréal until 1992.
Relaunched by the France Luxury Group in 1992, Jacques Fath was purchased in 1996 by the Banque Saga Group, which appointed Tom van Lingen, a Dutch designer, as its head designer. In 1997, when the company was purchased by Groupe Emmanuelle Khanh, van Lingen was replaced by Elena Nazaroff.
A year later, Nazaroff was replaced by
Octavio Pizarro.
The firm became part of the Alliance Designers Group in 2002, which announced the hiring of young English designer Lizzie Disney to revive the fashion side of the bran
. Disney and the firm parted ways in 2004, and the company was sold again in 2006.
Marriage
Fath, who has been described by Italian journalist Bonaventuro Calora as extremely effeminate and a former lover of the French film director
Léonide Moguy
Léonide Moguy (14 July 1899 – 21 April 1976) was a Ukrainian, French and Italian film director, screenwriter and film editor.
Moguy was born Leonid Mohylevskyi () in Odesa, Russian Empire in 1899 in a Jewish family. He lived in Soviet Ukrai ...
, married, in 1939, Geneviève Boucher. The bride was a photographer's model who had been
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...
's secretary. They had one son, Philippe (born 1943). According to Fath's friend Princess Giovanna Pignatelli Aragona Cortés, Geneviève Fath, who directed the business side of her husband's firm during his lifetime, was a lesbian.
Geneviève Fath married, on 21 October 1967, a 27-year-old Turkish interior decorator, Kudret Ismaïl Talay, at Saint-Martin-des-Champs, in Yvelines, France. They later divorced.
Film career
Fath appeared in ''
Scandal on the Champs-Élysées
''Scandal on the Champs-Élysées'' (French: ''Scandale aux Champs-Élysées'') is a 1949 French crime drama film directed by Roger Blanc and starring Pierre Renoir, Françoise Christophe and Guy Decomble.Rège p.108
It was shot at the Billancou ...
'' (1949, directed by Roger Blanc).
He designed costumes for several films:
*''Entre onze heures et minuit'' (1948, directed by
Henri Decoin
Henri Decoin (18 March 1890 – 4 July 1969) was a French film director and screenwriter, who directed more than 50 films between 1933 and 1964. He was also a swimmer who won the national title in 1911 and held the national record in the 500 ...
)
*''Quai des orfèvres'' (1947, directed by
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot (; 20 November 1907 – 12 January 1977) was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed ''The Wages of Fear'' and '' Les Diaboliques'', ...
)
*''
The Red Shoes'' (1948, costumes for
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish ballet, ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's ''The Red Shoes (1948 film), Th ...
)
*''La minute de vérité'' (1952)
*''Genevieve'' (1953, costumes for
Kay Kendall
Kay Kendall (21 May 1927 – 6 September 1959) was an English actress and comedienne. She began her film career in the musical film '' London Town'' (1946), a financial failure. Kendall worked regularly until her appearance in the comedy film ...
)
*''Abdullah the Great'' (1955)
Military service
Fath served as a gunner, second class, in the French Army. He received the Croix de Guerre with silver star
and the Légion d'honneur. He also was held as a prisoner of war for a month, and was demobilized in 1940.
Death
Fath died of leukemia on 13 November 1954.
Approximately 4,000 people attended his funeral at St. Pierre de Chaillot Church in Paris.
Documentary film
Fath was the subject of a 1994 documentary film by Pascal Franck called ''Les Folies de Fath''.
Les Folies de Fath (1998)
IMDb
References
External links
Jacques Fath Official Website
*
*
*
Jacques Fath, Self-Taught Fashion Designer
', A.G.Nauta couture, 2013-05-05.
*
Robert Barger and Jacques Fath collection, 1949-1952, [1973
from The Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library at The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fath, Jacques
1912 births
1954 deaths
French fashion designers
Deaths from leukemia
Deaths from cancer in France
French people of Flemish descent