Born: Lafitte, France, 1912
Died: Paris, France, 1954
Jacques Fath was the darling of the Parisian social scene, his name spoken in the same sentence as Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior. Fath's style, however, was less breathtaking and more a celebration of the female form. Described by Vogue in the 1950s as `a comet', Fath shot to fame after the Second World War, in the wake of the fashion revolution caused by Dior's New Look: women dressed according to the Paris directive and the press were, once again, frequenting the front row.
Fath had dressmaking in his blood - his great-grandmother was dressmaker to Empress Eugénie - but he started his career as a book-keeper. He showed his first collection in 1937, but it was in the post-war era of renewed optimism and femininity that he made his mark. While Balenciaga and Dior concentrated on sculpture and the invention of new proportions, Fath focused on undulating lines and elegant juxtaposition of colours. `Persian lamb is dyed blue to trim a blue suit,' said Vogue in its collection report of September 1956. `Fath carries the idea still further with green, red and purple.' During his short, sharp career, Fath made a lasting impression. A retrospective of his work was held in Paris in 1993.
Famously compared with Frank Lloyd Wright, Gianfranco Ferre has a rotund physique and aesthetic sensibility. His grandfather designed bicycles and his father was the owner of two factories. Ferre originally trained as an architect at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1969. His favourite architectural triumphs include the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the Torre Velasca in Milan. Ferre's first official show was presented in a restaurant in Via San Murillo, Milan, in 1974. Four years later came his first collection, `Gianfranco Ferre Donna', followed by a menswear line in 1982.
Salvatore Ferragamo's supremacy in making innovative shoe shapes was a product of his apprenticeship with a craftsman in his native Italy. In 1923 he emigrated to America and opened a shoe shop in Santa Barbara, California, making couture shoes. His client list included Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, the Duchess of Windsor and Eva Perón. He also worked with producer and director Cecil B De Mille. Ferragamo was a perfectionist and innovator. He worked with unusual materials - Cellophane, raffia, lace and crystal, as well as fish skin and sea leopard - and instigated new shapes, including the platform shoe, an ancient Chinese idea which he relaunched in 1938. Between 1927 and 1960 he produced 20,000 designs, and published his biography, Shoemaker of Dreams in 1957. He didn't care that his style was relentlessly plagiarized - Ferragamo was the original: `Elegance and comfort are not incompatible, and whoever maintains the contrary simply doesn't know what he is talking about.'