Jean Patou

The couturier Jean Alexandre Patou was born on September 27, 1887 in Paris (10th arrondissement) to Charles Patou and Jeanne Grison. His father ran a chamoiserie in Énencourt-Léage (Oise) from 1888 to 1911 before continuing his activity in Villejuif. Jean Patou will work alongside his father for a while before turning to one of his uncles exercising the profession of furrier from whom he will learn the trade. This experience then revealed his interest in fashion. In October 1905, Jean Patou enlisted in the army for three years. In 1910, he moved to Paris and decided to open a haute couture house, in which he joined a fur workshop. In the grip of financial difficulties, this first initiative ended in failure, but Jean Patou repeated the experience by opening in 1912 the “Maison Parry”, a small sewing salon located at the 4 roundabout of the Champs-Élysées. The beginnings are marked by some stammerings since Jean Patou does not fully follow contemporary fashion but initiates new trends both by ignorance of "what is done" and by an avant-garde vision, the reception of models is then uncertain. This will be the case with his first collection offering many jackets in an era when taste favors coats. However, although this house does not claim to rise to the same level as the great couturiers, Jean Patou manages to seduce some actresses and demi-mondaines like Geneviève Lantelme, Ève Lavallière or even Alyx from the Comédie Française by offering simpler and less expensive models than its competitors. In 1913, an American buyer known as “the elder Liechtenstein”, who came to acquire a few models, finally left with the entire collection, proving the growing interest aroused by Jean Patou's creations. Conversely, this purchase consolidates the Maison Parry and the Patou style, and initiates its distribution in the United States. With these first favors, Jean Patou plans to enlarge his house and move it to a new location, so in 1914, he transferred it to 7 rue Saint-Florentin near the Place de la Concorde in an elegant mansion. from the 18th century. It was on this date that the house took the name of Jean Patou & Cie and housed the workshop, offices and lounges. At the time of the presentation of his first collection, Patou was called to the front, which would never see the light of day. After having participated in the First World War as captain in a Zouave regiment of the Army of the Orient, based in the Dardanelles, Jean Patou returned to Paris in 1919 and really revived the activity of his house which had remained unofficially open during the last years. . Because of the war, Patou developed a new vision of human relations which he then applied in the management of his house. Since his beginnings, he had surrounded himself with his sister Madeleine and her husband Raymond Barbas, to which are now added Georges Bernard responsible for sewing but also Elsa Maxwell, figure of the "café society" whose role will be to promote the image of the house. Patou seeks to surround himself, to collaborate in order to devote himself fully to his position as artistic director while drawing on teamwork. He was also worried about the well-being of his employees and introduced new working conditions: thus, they benefited from a mutual insurance scheme and from 1920 paid leave, finally a system of delegates was born within the house. . At the same time, post-war society advocates regained freedom, promotes the proliferation of various environments and new lifestyles are established, such as the taste for travel and stays in the provinces, favored by the growth of the automobile. The woman who has become more active and more independent wants to preserve these recent achievements, which will be encouraged by the novel by Victor Margueritte La Garçonne published in 1922. He owned the villa Casablanca in Biarritz, built in 1922 by Guillaume Tronchet and bought from Paul Poiret. Listening to his time In the continuity of his first models, Jean Patou maintained in the 1920s a fluid and tubular line imbued with simplicity for the day while evening outfits while offering silky materials were enriched with embroidery , draped and bubbled to play with the light of the dance halls. However, in accordance with the desire for women's freedom and more specifically for freedom of movement, these outfits are shortened to reveal more of the legs. For these creations, Jean Patou draws on the contemporary stylistic repertoire using historical reminiscences: by the cut, a fluid that can evoke antique outfits or their reinterpretation of the early nineteenth century, by the materials, vaporous and light with the use of muslin evoking these same or more worked periods forming knots and shells to suggest the more romantic fashions of the 19th century, themselves drawing on medieval fashions. This last inspiration is also illustrated by the loan from the religious cloakroom like the dress worn by Nicoleta Arrivabene during her marriage to Count Edoardo Visconti di Modrone on November 28, 1929 in Venice. The exotic influence is also in order especially for the afternoon and evening outfits to give them more fantasy. This trend is unfolding in many ways as many cultures are embodied as sources of inspiration. Russian exoticism is reflected in the use of embroidery, some of which are produced by the Kitmir company founded by Duchess Marie Pavlovna of Russia, by the cut reminiscent of traditional blouses or more simply by certain names of models such as Carina in 1922 or Tatiana in 1924. Fabrics used such as silk velvets or lamés as well as cuts inspired by caftans and capes are reminiscent of the influence of the Middle East. Other motifs such as the medallions or more distinctly those of the chinoiseries, notably visible on the Nuit de Chine model of 1922 obviously evoke the homonymous country. Finally, some creations reminiscent of the cut of kimonos and / or saris draw respectively from the Japanese and Indian wardrobe as evidenced by a collection of "pajamas" from the 1930s. With these sources of inspiration, Jean Patou fully meets the taste of the he era and above all agrees with contemporary creation, however its avant-gardism of the 1910s still animates it. He thus distinguished himself in fashion as an innovative designer, precisely thanks to his understanding of the desires and latent needs. Patou understands on the one hand that with the development of leisure, sport and outdoor activities, a more suitable cloakroom must be born. On the other hand, his proximity to Raymond Barbas, his collaborator but also a former tennis champion, allows him to meet the sporting world in which he understands that, here too, more suitable equipment is needed. Aware of these challenges, Patou first responded to them in 1921 by dressing Suzanne Lenglen during a competition at Wimbledon. She appears wearing a pleated skirt ending at the knees, a sleeveless sweater and a headband in her hair, putting away the many long petticoats, the bodice and the hat ... Suzanne Lenglen, Divine. Whether appreciated or criticized, this "revolutionary" outfit manages to seduce the fairer sex, so much so that the following year, in the fall, Patou includes for the first time in his collection a range of sports and sportswear. outdoors. Patou very quickly understood the need to diversify this wardrobe, by offering models for tennis, skiing and swimming as well as for non-athletic clients wishing to access this sartorial simplicity. From this expectation, Jean Patou will design dresses, skirts and jackets for those who want to "look like" but above all he will innovate in their design. Distributing widely the jersey offering bodily ease just like the pleated skirt, designing a complete outfit with coordinated sweater and waistcoat - we then speak of twin-set - but also combinable with each other, offering an accessorization of these sets with matching scarves and wearing from a modern geometric repertoire reminiscent of cubism, Patou establishes both a sporty, elegant style with an expanded sartorial diversity and a new way of experiencing clothing. The craze for this fashion is such that in 1925, Le Coin des Sports was inaugurated in the house. Jean Patou is also the first to affix a monogram made up of his initials “JP” on his creations. In 1927, he launched the oil of Chaldea, which foreshadows sunscreen. In his Parisian boutique, he sets up a bar where customers can drink during fittings. Another innovation, a line called Sex Appel, which offers soaps, eyeshadows, nail polish, or even make-up which underlines a new sociological upheaval, consisting in putting on make-up in broad daylight, also harmonizing the wardrobes it offers to sale and also offsetting the masculine allure of the clothes worn. Perfumery In 1923, with his brother-in-law Raymond Barbas, he created the perfumes division of his couture company. In 1925, they were joined by the Grasse perfumer Henri Alméras, as master perfumer. Jean Patou creates three fragrances called Amour-Amour, Que sais-je? and Farewell wisdom respectively dedicated to blondes, brunettes and redheads. Then, in 1929, Henri Alméras composed Moment Suprême. Also in 1929, he launched Le Sien, the first unisex fragrance. Jean Patou wanted a flagship fragrance for his house. In 1930, Henri Alméras then proposed a fragrance composed of essences of rose and jasmine in particularly large proportions: more than 10,000 jasmine flowers from Grasse and 28 dozen roses were needed (May roses from Grasse "Rosa centifolia" and roses from Bulgaria) to obtain three centilitres of perfume. The price of this composition made its marketing very risky during the economic crisis which followed the crash of 1929. But Jean Patou was seduced and launched the marketing under the Joy brand and using the particularly daring slogan suggested to him by his friend and advisor, American columnist Elsa Maxwell: Joy, the most expensive perfume in the world (the costliest perfume in the world). Jean Patou died prematurely in 1936 of a stroke when he was only 49 years old; he is buried in the cemetery of Passy, 10th division. His house of haute-couture and perfume will survive him. Today, while its haute-couture activity ceased in 1987 after the departure of designer Michel Goma, the perfume house Jean Patou is part of the English group Designer Parfums, after having been the “Prestige beauty” division of the Procter group. & Gamble from 2001 to July 2011.