Book Review: Madame Grès Couture Paris

Madame Grès Couture Paris, recently published by Rizzoli, is the latest book by fashion historian and curator Olivier Saillard. Saillard, whose extensive accomplishments at Paris’ Palais Galleria are credited with invigorating an interest in fashion beyond that of the more established Musée des Arts Décoratifs, is one of the leading voices on the work of Madame Grès. His recent “Alaïa / Grès” exhibition at the Alaïa Fondation, and “Madame Grès, The Art Of Draping” at SCAD last year, continues to further the legacy of one of the most innovative couturiers in the history of fashion.

Grés work is most generally known for her spectacular draping techniques and mastery of pleating. Initially wanting to become a sculptor (“Working in fabric or stone is the same thing for me”), Grés’ used jersey to sculpt designs of such exquisite timelessness they seem to have been handed down through the ages from the most regal of Hellenistic courts. Indeed, a 1936 photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene reveals one of her evening dresses in all of its languid sumptuousness, resolutely proving why her masterful creations inspire so many contemporary designers.

But make no mistake, Grès’ work possesses a striking modernity which separates it from her contemporaries. Working directly on the body, never from sketches, her innate sensitivity to the female form produced dresses which were neither restrictive or inhibiting. Instead, they celebrated a woman’s natural curves, following the outline like a caress. The near absence of any decoration and a strict adherence to monochrome underscores the purity of her designs. The highly intricate pleating, both excruciatingly laborious and minutely detailed, belie the ethereal presence of her dresses. Today, we would consider Grès a minimalist, but such finely tuned rigor is rarely found in the work of designers for whom that label would apply.

Notoriously private (she preferred to let her work speak for itself), her lack of communication did not hamper accolades. She was France’s ambassador at the New York World’s Fair (one of her dresses adorned an a relief sculpture from antiquity) in 1940, awarded the Légion de Honneur in 1949, and unanimously elected president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 1972. A “designer’s designer”, her monomaniacal pursuit of elegance as a destiny warranted the appointments and acclaim

The photographs, mostly taken from the SCAD exhibition and the Bourdelle museum, are elegantly dressed in shades of greige and soft blacks, creating a feeling as intimate as a couture fitting. Saillard’s extensive yet precise editing over the book’s 128 pages takes us on a journey through Grès body of work where her distinctive and singular vision, so focused and distilled, shows an unmistakable clarity; a signature which could only be hers.

Aside from his short forward, and an equally brief recounting of Grès life by Annie Graire midway through, Saillard allows our eye to simply marvel, page after page, at Madame Grès wondrous output. And indeed, her work does speak for itself.

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© Madame Grès Couture by Olivier Sallard, Rizzoli, 2024 (Rizzoli, $65, 128 pages) is out now.

 All images courtesy of the publisher.