1903-1993
Madame Gres was haute couture's sphinx, an austere and dignified person who dedicated her whole life to perfecting the art of draping and pleating vast amounts of cloth into a single gown. She defied the vulgarity of fashion and hated the glare of publicity. She was a genius who was admired by everyone in the fashion industry but died in obscurity and poverty.
Germaine Emilie Krebs was born in 1903 in Paris, France. Frustrated in her ambition to become a sculptor, she began her career by making Toiles for major Paris fashion houses. She worked for a time for the house of Premet.
In 1934, she opened her own house under the name of Alix Barton, and her gowns started to appear in fashion magazines under the name ALIX. She started experimenting with simple clothing, particularly jersey day dresses. Initially she was in partnership, and she decided to leave Alix, as the name belonged to someone else.
During the 30's, the Alix gowns were greatly admired. Her training in sculpture enabled her to capture the classical Greek style and timeless elegance in her evening gowns. Hers was an individual uncompromising style which seemed to have a liquid effect on the drapery and turned fashionable women into living statues.
She formed a new salon GRES, taking the letters of the name from the name of her husband Russian painter Serge Czerefkov, whom she had married in 1939. After a few years, he left her and her baby daughter and went to Tahiti, never to return. She was heartbroken but she financed him until his death in 1970 although she never saw him again.
The house of Gres opened in 1942 at l, rue de la Paix, during the German occupation of Paris. In spite of her being Jewish, the Germans initially allowed her to continue her business hoping that she would dress the wives of German officers. When she refused to do so, they closed her down.
The salon reopened after the war and Madame Gres was again feted as a master couturier. She insisted on haute couture in a age of mass production. Her gowns often took 300 working hours to complete. They were constructed pleat by pleat, each pleat l millimeter wide. She said "My only desire is to create dresses that impress the world", however this led to severe financial problems.
She continued making her dresses throughout the 50's, 60's and 70's. She often visited the Museum of Fine Arts, studying the classical Greek statues and returning to her atelier to create her own forms of classical gowns. She would sometimes use up to 70 metres of silk jersey.
She did not design for the glitterati, but for rich women who conducted truly private lives. Among them were Gersende de Sabran-Ponteves, Duchess d'Orleans, Princess Ghislaine de Polignac, the Begum Aga Khan, Princess Grace of Monaco, Marella Agnelli and Marie-Helene de Rothschild.
She brought out her first Perfume Cabochard in 1959. She gave out a licensing agreement for scarves and neckties, and designed jewellery for Cartier. She was awarded the Golden Thimble, fashion's highest award in 1976.
However in 1982, to keep her couture going, she rashly sold her Perfume rights to Beecham. Eventually, very reluctantly she was forced to make ready-to-wear garments.
In 1987 the house went bankrupt. Toiles, mannequins, dresses, archives were thrown into rubbish bins and destroyed. A Japanese group bought the name but Madame Gres and her daughter left Paris in 1990 for seclusion.
Losing her work destroyed Madame Gres, without her work she had nothing to live for. In 1993, she died in poverty in an old people's sanatorium. Her daughter did not inform the world, as she herself was very poor. However when the news did come out, the French fashion industry was shocked and shamed. She had been President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, Haute Couture's governing body and she was the oldest living Couturier, a French legend, who had been allowed to disappear and to die unrecognized.
In 1994, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, held a major retrospective of the work of Madame Alix Gres, which was attended by thousands of people. But of course this was too late to help the great designer herself.
The Gres Style
Alix and Gres gowns, stand for an ideal of beauty and skillful handwork now nearly obsolete. Her method never changed. She worked 365 days a year producing nearly 350 models. She worked with a live model, making a pattern directly on the figure. She cut, pinned and fastened the toile herself.
Having directed the flow of the folds with her hands, she then had the unpressed pleats stitched into place, making these pleated areas appear to be woven into each other. The fabric fell from them to the floor in graceful folds.
She also designed bias-cut, away from the body (bias usually follows the body) dresses and caftans in bright gilt brocades, failles, linen, silk, satin and organdy. Using stiff paper taffeta she made togas that fell in a triangle from neck to floor.
Her dresses used cut rather than a print, combining different colours of the same fabric in a patchwork. Her day clothes of leather, soft wool, tweeds and plaids were hooded, batwing-sleeved, shaped like kimonos or caped. Her silhouette changed little in half a century, for current fashions have never guided Gres in placement of waistline or hemline.
House of Gres continues
A large Japanese fashion distributor Yagi Tsusho, bought the name Madame Gres in 1988 and has developed the brand in Japan.
Designer Lloyd Klein was chief designer in Paris from 1994-1997. The house of Gres continued under designer Frederic Molenac who joined the house of Gres in 1995.
In the summer of 2002, Japanese designer Koji Tatsuno took over. He is shown on the right. One of his designs for the house of Gres for Summer 2003, is shown on the left.
Tatsuno is very respectful of the legacy of Madame Gres, and intends to continue her draping style using new and modern techniques and retaining the beauty and elegance of the House.
Spring/Summer 2004
During Paris Fashion Week in October 2003, Koji Tatsuno showed the Gres collection for next Spring. A dress from this collection is shown on the right.
Their show invitations were gold pleated paper which told us what to expect. When the first model appeared wearing a dress draped in the inimitable Gres style, the audience sighed with relief. Koji showed a collection of flowing garments, Goddess styles, Greco-Roman, ruffles, and tops finished in an asymmetrical shape. The colour palette was light, beige, white black and soft pastels. The future for the house of Gres looks golden.
Exhibition
A very important retrospective of Madame Gres' work is being shown at the Musee de Tissus de Bourgoin-Jallien in France from 19th June 2004 to 31st January 2005.
Homage to Madame Gres
A great many designers have paid homage to Madame Gres and her creations. The latest is the Spring/Summer 2005 ready-to-wear collection of Lloyd Klein, which he has called "Reflections of Madame Gres". Click through after the show which will be held in New York soon.
click below:
2004
Muse (W)