JEAN PATOU: A FASHIONABLE LIFE
During the 1920s and 1930s, the French couturier Jean Patou was Chanel’s main rival. Day pajamas, jersey sportswear, swimwear, and the little black dress were all among the innovative designs marking Patou’s remarkable, albeit brief, career as the king of Parisian fashion.
With his untimely death at age 49, he had only 15 years to make his mark on the history of couture, and yet in that short time he amassed a colossal fortune, opened shops and studios in Paris, Deauville, Biarritz, and New York, and created some of the world’s legendary fragrances, including Joy and Que Sais-Je.
For the first time the Patou heirs have agreed to share their extensive private archives, and author Emmanuelle Polle spent more than two years reviewing thousands of unpublished documents, including photographs, diaries, client lists, and original, hand-colored sketches.
Signed by major names in fashion photography, such as Baron de Meyer, Laure Albin Guillot, and the Seeberger brothers, the vintage photographs—presented alongside fashion designs, original fabric swatches, art deco furniture, perfume bottles, and garments photographed especially for this volume— retrace the universe of this extraordinary aesthete.
This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in the history of fashion and of the greatest early years of modern Parisian style.
© Jean Patou: A Fashionable Life by Emmanuelle Polle, Flammarion, 2013.
JEAN PATOU: A Fashionable Life
By Emmanuelle Polle, Photography by Francis Hammond
Flammarion, distributed by Rizzoli New York
Hardcover w/jacket / 280 pages / 250 color and black-and-white iluustrations / 9½” x 12¼”
ISBN: 978-2-08-020152-2
PRICE: $95.00 US & CAN
PUBLICATION DATE: October 2013
