Extraordinary clothes still need a body to bring them to life. The Greco-Roman drapes of Madame Grès, though, are a rare exception; they just need a pair of eyes on them. You may already have seen the French couturière’s work: perhaps in Paris, as part of a recent exhibition with Azzedine Alaïa that showcased the dialogue between the two late designers, or maybe at the remarkable Madame Grès: Couture at Work installation at Musée Bourdelle in 2011, where gowns were displayed in wood-framed glass cases, like Victorian natural history exhibits.
Madame Grès Couture Paris by Rizzoli, which is published this month, is an homage to the late “Sphinx of Fashion”. As curator and historian Olivier Saillard details in the book, Grès – born Germaine Émilie Krebs in 1903 – created body sculpture as much as clothing. “I have been ripping off her vibe my whole career,” says designer Rick Owens. “I love her almost stern reserve and restraint. She had a monastic and sensual approach.” Likewise Halston, Sophia Kokosalaki, Issey Miyake and Yves Saint Laurent have all emulated her cascades of silk jersey.
Grès aspired to be a sculptor in her youth, but joined forces in 1933 with couturière Julie Barton to open Maison Alix. By 1942, she had established her own Hellenic silhouettes, often with hoods that struck an art deco chord, and launched House of Grès, using a partial anagram of her husband’s first name, Serge.
Saillard describes Grès as an eccentric workaholic who showed little regard for commerciality. She drove around Paris in a blue Jaguar with mink-upholstered seats, collected dowdy 17th-century Dutch paintings and Byzantine crosses, and started work at 6am before finishing around 2am the following morning. She made clothes with as little sewing as possible (she loathed it), but with confident, exuberant cutting. Saillard cites her proclamation: “Cutting is the most important stage in creating a dress. For every collection that I produce, I wear out three pairs of scissors.”
Saillard describes Azzedine Alaïa as “the spiritual son of Grès”. Both designers worked on the body rather than from sketches, cutting at fabric instinctively. “Azzedine had the same convictions as her,” says Saillard. “She knew that what characterised her work was the strength of repetition, consistency and the desire to push back against shifts in fashion to create something stable.”
The Grès maison dissolved into bankruptcy before its founder retired in 1987 – she died in 1993. Despite having a postscript as a Japanese-owned ready-to-wear brand for a period, the name has subsequently languished. Grès’s original designs, however, continue to inspire. “Draped jersey is to Grès what metal boxes are to Donald Judd,” continues Owens. “They both became masters of their forms. I always wanted to be a Sid Vicious version of Madame Grès.”
For many seasons, Owens has designed single-shouldered maxi dresses that drape like magic around the body. “Haider Ackermann made lovely stylistic references to Grès in his couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier last year,” adds Saillard. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s AW24 Dior haute couture harked back to ancient Olympians, while Pieter Mulier’s current Alaïa collection features typical Azzedine/Grès draping, as well as garments made from billowing loops of yarn, creating a parallel visual impact.
When Alaïa died in 2017, he had more than 600 Grès dresses in his archive. “His acquisitions were never-ending,” says Carla Sozzani, a longtime friend and the co-founder of his foundation. “He wanted to protect her work for future generations. They were both fascinated by the flowing forms depicted in Greek sculpture – the ultimate example of total freedom in clothing. Their first preoccupation was the body, the second was the fabric.” Preoccupations that have shaped some of the greatest, most extraordinary designs in fashion history – and now immortalised in print forever.
Madame Grès Couture Paris by Olivier Saillard is published by Rizzoli at £42.50
Four more fashion books
From the cultural history of jewellery to the “tumultuous journey” of America’s largest lingerie brand. By Inès Cross
If Jewels Could Talk by Carol Woolton
For Carol Woolton, host of the hit podcast If Jewels Could Talk and a former editor at British Vogue, jewellery is “the global connector” linking our past to our future. Where does our love of gems come from? In her seventh book, Woolton compiles a cultural history of jewellery through seven items: beads, charms, brooches, cuffs, rings, head ornaments and the “humble hoop” – among the first thought to date back to Queen Puabi of Mesopotamia in 2600BC – alongside glittering stories of Viking silver torques and 16th-century Posy rings. Simon & Schuster, £18.99
How to Wear Everything by Kay Barron
Net-a-Porter fashion director Kay Barron has written the ultimate guide to getting dressed. Drawing on two-decades of fashion industry experience and tips from 18 muses, including model and film star Monica Bellucci and Oprah Winfrey, the book offers no-frills advice on what to wear for every event and outing. Barron covers how to find the perfect pair of jeans, what not to pack on holiday (heels) and “what the hell to wear to a club night” when your partying days are behind you. Penguin Michael Joseph, £22
Selling Sexy by Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez
Journalists Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez chart the tumultuous journey of America’s largest lingerie brand. Now under new ownership, Victoria’s Secret will stage its famous fashion show this autumn for the first time in five years. Beyond push-up bras and pants, which at the company’s peak drew in $8bn in annual sales, this is as a story about “the birth of fast fashion, pre-teens in a hurry to grow up, bombshell hair, the rise of wellness culture, supermodels turned influencers, and influencers turned supermodels”. Macmillan, $29.99
Balenciaga – Kublin: A Fashion Record by Ana Balda and Maria Kublin
This volume, exploring the creative relationship between Hungarian fashion photographer Tom Kublin and haute couture designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, is a snapshot of the golden age of couture. Throughout the 1950s and ‘60s, the pair shot documentary and art photography at Balenciaga’s headquarters in Paris; over 100 pictures in this book cover collection shoots, magazine covers and rare photographs of the couturier himself at work. Thames & Hudson, $75
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