First among equals: How French dressmaker Jeanne Paquin changed the fashion industry

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

Music during the catwalk, openness to the wishes of clients, collaborations with artists, branches all over the world and a black dress on the way out - all this was brought to the fashion industry by Jeanne Paquin, whose name has now faded next to the big names of Paul Poiret and Garbrielle Chanel. Who was that woman who made fashion exactly the way we know it now?

Jeanne Paquin - nee Jeanne Marie-Charlotte Beckers - was born in 1869 in the northern suburbs of Paris, her father was engaged in medicine.

The very young Zhanna got a job in an atelier and was so successful in the sewing business that in a few years she went from an apprentice to the main dressmaker of the Ruff fashion house.

In 1891, she married Isidore Rene Jacob Paquin - this union became for them a strong business partnership. Together they opened the Paquin fashion house - in a sense, it was a wedding gift to Jeanne from Isidore, a former banker and businessman - from his parents he inherited a men's clothing store, which he promoted with some success. He took over the duties of a manager, and Zhanna got the opportunity to realize all her creative aspirations.

Overwhelming success awaited them. Paquin dresses rushed to their future owners - aristocrats, daughters and wives of millionaires, famous actresses - across seas and oceans.

In the first decade of Paquin's existence, branches were opened in Madrid, London, New York …

This has never been done by any fashion house. And no fashion house put their creations up for sale in department stores - but Paquin didn't mind.

In 1900, Jeanne was elected president of the fashion section at the World's Fair in Paris. She was responsible for everything - organizing shows, decorating exhibition pavilions - and the exhibition space she created was later called the "temple of fashion".

Jeanne often turned her gaze to the past or to exotic cultures - she created collections in the Empire style or adopted the cut of a traditional Japanese costume.

Jeanne said: "Fashion should be constantly updated, without showing weakness or fear, and do it with audacity."

However, Zhanna, active and active, understood that the life of women was changing dramatically. She suggested that clients wear pleated skirts made of durable fabric, resistant to wear and tear and comfortable for travel on public transport, a draped dress that could be worn during the day and evening, with only a change of accessories.

Jeanne drew attention to how the clients were carried away by Poiret's "lame skirts" - so narrow that they could only move in small steps. But she found them completely inappropriate for modern women - and reworked a rival colleague's design with hidden folds - so the silhouette remained relevant without holding down the woman.

She herself preferred long twill suits - they were comfortable to work in. A couple of decades before women began to master driving en masse, Jeanne created dresses for elegant motorists - practical and comfortable. She designed multifunctional clothing for sports, hunting and travel, in which "it was not a shame to show up in a restaurant."

"She is the most commercially successful artist alive today," wrote fashion commentators about her.

Jeanne created dresses from chiffon and velvet, trimmed them with fur and embroidery, but she was never an escapist and dreamer, her things were intended for a woman who does not play the role of an interior doll, but achieves success every day.

Paquin knew how to take care of her interests - history knows many lawsuits of the Paquin house against competitors who stole their models.

She was the first in everything - including the first woman to open a fashion house and take the place of the chief designer.

The first female fashion designer to be awarded the Legion of Honor.

“I just want justice, I want no matter what area a woman works, her merits would be recognized,” she said then in her response speech.

Paken came up with what is now called "collaborations" - she began to collaborate with artists and architects to create her own collections, for example, she created a number of costumes based on Lev Bakst's sketches.

She was at the forefront of the Art Nouveau style that changed the way Europe and America think about design. Jeanne was the first to send the models “to the people”. Girls in dresses by Jeanne Paquin strolled along the Longchamp Racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne among a luxurious crowd.

Paquin's fashion shows were held at the Royal Theater in London - then one of the innovations was the use of music during the catwalk.

It was Paquin, not Chanel, who brought black to the fashion scene - at that time it was considered mourning. At the same time, Paken was not a cold-blooded capitalist. Once, together with her husband, she bought a luxurious villa outside the city … where she sent the employees of the fashion house to rest. When women in the fashion industry staged a strike in Paris in 1917, Jeanne joined the strikers - which drew the dissatisfaction of her fellow fashion designers.

In 1907, Isidore died suddenly. He was only forty-two years old. Heartbroken Jeanne (since then she dressed only in black and white, abandoning color as a sign of mourning) was supported by her half-brother and his wife - together they managed to keep the business afloat. Jeanne headed the Paquin fashion house until 1920 - but even after her retirement the work did not stop - Madeleine Wallace and other creative women inspired by her example came to replace Jeanne. It was in the Paquin house in London that another future revolutionary of the fashion industry, Madeleine Vionnet, gained experience.

However, Jeanne, retiring from business, did not get bored - she decided to remarry and spent the last years of her life with the French diplomat Jean-Baptiste Noulens. Tenacious, strong when it came to work and creativity, Jeanne was very modest in life, did not suit noisy parties, rarely appeared in the world, did not shout to the whole world about her talent. It seems that this is one of the reasons why the huge role of Jeanne Paquin for the fashion industry was forgotten for many years.

Her fashion house outlived her by twenty years. Her achievements have remained in the fashion world forever - and have become so familiar that it is difficult for us to imagine fashion before Jeanne Paquin.