Lelong

Lucien (1889-1952). French tailor, founder of the maison which carries his name, one of those — like Molyneux, Patou, Schiaparelli, and Chanel — who created the prestige of French fashion after World War II, thanks to the closely linked relationship between stylism and culture: fabrics designed by DalÕ and bijoux created by Cocteau. Lucien learned his trade with his father, Arthur, the founder of a fabric factory (1896), and his mother Eléanore, a good dressmaker. He discovered his vocation in the family business which, as soon as the World War I was over, he expanded by creating his own fashion house. With a workforce of 1,200 people, he became immediately famous for the neat tailoring of his designs, and his skill in choosing and manufacturing fabrics. He was assisted in this by his very beautiful wife Natalie Paléy, the daughter of the Grand Duke Paul of Russia. He later hired the most promising designers of the moment to design his collections: such names as Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, and Hubert Givenchy. An enlightened manager, after a journey to the United States to learn the working methods in the mass production of clothes, he created a line of prêt-à-porter branded L.L. Edition. From 1937 till the end of World War II, he was President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, in which role he was able hinder the transfer of Parisian fashion houses to Berlin during the German occupation. But many of them had shut down, refusing to work so as not to be forced to sell their designs to the Germans. The maisons that continued to work were unable, one peace returned, to regain the status they had before the war — with one exception: Chanel.