Madame Martin (
fl. 1671) was the hairdresser at the court of
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
who popularised a style of elaborate
tall hair.
Madame Martin was married to a whig maker and her profession was not as unusual in her position; however, she demonstrated true creative talent and became unusual in her success as an independent professional artist in a period when the profession of hair dressing was only just starting to emerge in France.
In 1671, she became a leading artist of her time by creating hair style known as the "harum scarum", which became very popular and
Marquise de Sevigne recommended to her daughter. Her style was a new initiative, as she broke with the previous fashion and arranged women's hair upward instead of on the sides, signifying a new style of fashion.
She invented the hair style ''a' la Maintenon'', which was famously adopted by
Madame de Maintenon Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ...
. She remained the leading hair dresser of the French court for several years during the late half of the 17th-century.
[Mary Trasko: Daring Do's: A History of Extraordinary Hair, Random House Incorporated, 1994]
References
French hairdressers
17th-century French businesswomen
{{fashion-bio-stub