Rouff

Maggie (1896-1971). French fashion creator. Born in Vienna. Her parents ran the maison Drecoll. It was there that she learned the trade. In 1929, with her husband, Pierre Besanµon de Wagner, she opened her own atelier in Paris and presented her first collection. Eight years later, she debuted in London as well. Over the course of her career, she wrote a number of literary works, collections of poetry, impressions, and aphorisms. In 1942 she published The Philosophy of Elegance (Paris, Edition Litteraires de France). She retired in Cannes in 1948. The following year, the maison was sold to the Mendel-Fourrures company, which entrusted the creative supervision to the countess of Dancourt, one of Maggie Rouff’s two daughters. Neither she nor other fashion designers, such as Serge Matta, Michel Malard and Guy Douvier, succeeded in halting the decline of the griffe, which would vanish from the stage of haute couture in the mid-1960s.