Jean Patou

Description

In the twenties and thirties, Jean Patou dressed the most elegant women. He was Chanel's main rival. Their fashions merged to such an extent that it is no longer clear whether Patou or Chanel was behind the daytime pyjamas or the little black dress. He died at the age of 49 in 1936, and had just fifteen years to make his mark on the history of couture. The author, Emmanuelle Polle, spent two fascinating years opening box after box, carton after carton, and choosing from thousands of documents, most of them previously unpublished. Signed by the great names of Roaring Twenties photography (Baron Adolf de Meyer, Laure Albin Guillot and the Séeberger brothers), the photographs join fashion sketches, fabrics, pieces of Art Deco furniture, perfume bottles and, of course, period clothes. Brought together in this way, these archives allow us to retrace the world of Jean Patou, the aesthete and follower of a certain minimalism. A rediscovery.