Boussac

Marcel Boussac (1889-1980) was a french textile entrepreneur. In the history of fashion, his name is linked especially to the establishment in 1946 of the house of Dior, of which he was not only the financier but indeed the real founder, since the great tailor was undecided about the venture. The son of a small wool entrepreneur, he established his first textile company around 1910. The first world war was a sort of miracle for him because he was selected as the government’s supplier of cloth for its pioneering airplanes. At the end of the war, he recycled his remaining inventory by manufacturing shirts. In 1923 he made his début in the world of high fashion by acquiring Pierre Clarence, a house of the second rank. Between the two world wars he built an empire which, when World War II was over, became even stronger more because when consumers started to by again, he was among the few with merchandise in his warehouse. His decline began toward the end of the 1950s, when the entire European textile sector went through a crisis. His group, though in big financial trouble, held out until 1978, when an aged Boussac was forced to appear in court with the company’s books. It was bankruptcy. That was when the firm Agaghe-Willot invested 700 million francs and the group was able to breathe again. It remained a giant, with 100 plants and 28,000 workers. As such, it still had dreams of expansion, which would be its ruin. In order to acquire Korvette’s, a chain of department stores in the U.S., it accumulated ruinous debt. It was 1981 and the French government urged a bailout, promising special conditions. A consortium led by Bernard Arnault acquired and drastically reorganized the firm.