Designers and Houses

The first couturier. Started the whole system.

7 rue de la Paix

Killed the corset. Then went bankrupt.

5 rue Auber

Invented the bias cut. Closed up shop at sixty-three.

50 avenue Montaigne

Sportswear into couture. Tweed into the boardroom.

31 rue Cambon

Killed wartime austerity in two hours flat.

30 avenue Montaigne

Hyper-sculpted shoulders. Aliens. Couture as theatre.

49 avenue Montaigne

Started by dressing her daughter. Ended up running the longest-running couture house in Paris.

22 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

Dressed Audrey Hepburn from 1953 to her death in 1993. That is most of the story.

3 avenue George V

The single most influential post-war designer. Dressed women in tuxedos before tuxedos for women existed.

30 bis rue Spontini

Showed the mini-skirt in Paris in 1964. Trained in engineering. Built clothes like machines.

40 rue François 1er

Surrealism as wearable object. Shocking pink as trademark.

21 place Vendôme

Baroque maximalism. Medusa logo. Killed on his Miami Beach steps in 1997.

Milan

The couturier's couturier. Cut without mercy.

10 avenue George V

Invented American sportswear. Did it on a budget.

Townley Frocks

American minimalism. Studio 54. Then sold to JC Penney.

33 East 68th Street

American couture, made in LA, never properly recognised in NY.

Los Angeles

Body-conscious cut, refused fashion-week schedule, did it anyway.

7 rue de Moussy

Survived the Titanic. Invented the fashion show. Empire-built from one shop in Hanover Square.

23 Hanover Square

Sold the mini-skirt at Chelsea prices. Built the British youth fashion industry from one boutique.

Bazaar

The most technical American couturier. Also the most difficult. Lived his last years in the Chelsea Hotel.

various

Showed in Paris in October 1981. Changed what fashion could look like.

Tokyo (Paris showroom from 1981)

The wrap dress. 1974. Sold five million units. Reinvented the working woman's day dress.

New York