Grès

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Grès was a French haute couture fashion house. Parfums Grès is the associated perfume house, which still exists, and is now based in Switzerland.

Contents

[edit] History

Germaine Emilie Krebs (1903-1993), known as Alix Barton and later as "Madame Grès", launched her design house under the name Grès in Paris in 1942. Formally trained as a sculptress, she produced haute couture designs for an array of fashionable women, including the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Dolores del Rio. 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 haute couture houses to establish a ready-to-wear line, which she called a "prostitution". [1]

The name Grès was a partial anagram of her husband's first name and alias. He was Serge Czerefkov, a Russian painter, who left her soon after the house's creation.[2] Grès enjoyed years of critical successes but, after Grès herself sold the business in the 1980s, it went bust.

[edit] Parfums Grès

Grès's first and most famous perfume was Cabochard, created by Bernard Chant, and launched in 1959.

Other perfumes, launched after the sale of the company, include:

  • Cabotine (1990)
  • Folie Douce (1997)
  • Cabaret (2003)
  • Caline (2005)
  • Caline Night (2006)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Biography at Parfums Grès official website. Retrieved 26 April 2006.
  2. ^ Biography at Parfums Grès official website. Retrieved 26 April 2006.

[edit] Biography

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

[edit] External links

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