Surviving a POW Camp to Create Beauty: The Forgotten "Drapery King" Jacques Griff

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, only fashion researchers remember the "king of drapery" Jacques Griffe, but at one time he enjoyed immense popularity not only in France, but throughout Europe. He dressed touching and passionate heroines of French cinema, he created fragrances that are still hunted by “perfume maniacs”, his works are kept in the largest costume museums - but his name has long been forgotten by the general public …

Jacques Griff's work is little researched, and he still has not found his biographer. Not much is known about the life of this man, who could well compete with Christian Dior for the title of the creator of the new look style. He was born, most likely, in the town of Conques-sur-Orbiel and at birth was named Theodore Antoine Emile Griff. His mother knew how and loved to sew. Under her influence, he himself became addicted to this business. His mother not only encouraged his passion, but also repeated day after day: "You must become a great master of your craft!" The first step to the title of “great master” was the apprentice job at a local tailor. Jacques was sixteen and was unbearably bored. However, years later, he called that sad tailor's workshop the best school of all that he had to go through - after all, it was there that he learned to work diligently, hard, selflessly. After some time, he moved to Toulouse and got a job at the Mirra ladies' clothing atelier. The owner of the atelier had a much more progressive outlook. She was obsessed with the latest trends, never missed a single one - and she had the mind of an explorer. She always strove to acquire some cunningly tailored "sensation" in order to dissect it later in her workshop. And then she forced the student to repeat this outfit on their own - from pattern to finishing.

Long months of training were not in vain for Jacques Griff, and in 1936 he got a job as a cutter in Madeleine Vionne's atelier. She has long been his idol, since childhood he admired her ingenuity and skill of the cut. And, fortunately, he developed warm and friendly relations with Madame Vionne. She saw great potential in him and even presented the young man with several of her personal mannequins so that Griff could learn the complex art of draping.

When the Second World War began, he decided to pay his debt to his homeland and signed up for the front as a volunteer. Almost immediately he was taken prisoner by Germany and stayed there for eighteen months. However, these difficult days did not break his spirit. After the war, Griff continued to relentlessly pursue his dream. It is known that he opened his own store called "Jacques Griffe Evaluation" - something like "Jacques Griff's Ready-made Dress." Around the same time, he entered the fashion house of Edward Moline, and in 1951 he headed his business, then located in an eighteenth-century mansion. Around the same years, Jacques Griff began to engage in perfumery and released fragrances that dizzy all fashionistas in France - Mistigri, Grilou, Griffonnage … The latter gained universal love and became a symbol of the fashion house thanks to a play on words (after all, its name resembled the name of the creator), a complex woody scent and original design.

The ad for the Griffonnage perfume was drawn by the most popular fashion illustrator of those years, Rene Gruau. The packaging design fully corresponded to the name (griffon art is scribbles that are unconsciously applied to paper, for example, chaotic drawings in a notebook during a long telephone conversation or flowers sprouting in the margin of a notebook at a boring lecture). The bottle resembled an elegant inkwell with a brass lid and a fuction-colored nib, the box had the shape of a booklet, and the image was complemented by a blotter, all strewn with blots and strokes of a pen. In 1950, the designer created an evening dress of the same name.

The best of Madame Vionne's pupils, Griff was a master of drapery, but he did not hesitate to use "supporting structures" such as crinolines and frames. Like Christian Dior, he cut exquisite evening dresses with a narrow bodice and wide layered skirts, and yet he believed that even such refined carry should be comfortable first of all, and the drapery and cut elements are designed only to frame the beautiful female body.

Griff loved fabrics that would now be called "complex" and shades that could be described in the same way - pink, purple, apricot, chartreuse, yellow … Endless rows of flowing moiré, lace, velvet, tulle and satin - these are the best by Jacques Griff. And the decor was not modest - frills, flounces, pleats, bows, fabric flowers, scallops and draperies. Still, Griff's creations have always looked restrained and elegant, and they could be successfully called architectural. He paid great attention to the quality and decoration of the seams, not trying to hide them - rather to make them an element of the image. Wrapping the legs of women in rows of thin fabric, he often bared their shoulders, especially sympathizing with the so-called "shepherd's" neckline, which made a woman's neck and chest incredibly seductive.

He left his mark in the "everyday" fashion, from time to time descending from heaven to earth. For coats and suits, he used thick woolen fabrics, giving the impression of a houndstooth pattern and polka dots - however, he loved polka dots and, if he had his way, would have strewn them all his creations. Griff introduced the fashion for women's jacket-tunics, tight-fitting coats in the new look style, repeating the popular style of evening dresses, and cropped square jackets. Jacques Griff created costumes for many French films - "Broken Dreams", "The Man on the Eiffel Tower", "Heart in the Palm" …

In 1968, the couturier retired. There is practically no information about his further life - except for the date of death in 1996. The perfume created by Jacques Griff is considered a collector's item. Beautiful evening dresses, imbued with the spirit of the 50s, were exhibited as works of art during the lifetime of the author, and now are presented in the collections of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Fashion and Costume in Paris.