André Courrèges appeared in various posts in this blog in connection with Courregesian trends and costumes, films, hairstyles, futuristic inspirations, cosmic fashion and supermodern wardrobes.
In the 60s Courrèges, the couturier of space age clothes, managed to fascinate with his achitecturally influenced, functional and clean-cut designs many women, among them also quite a few wealthy customers such as actress Romy Schneider, singer Françoise Hardy, Baroness Lopex de Terragoya and Sophie Litvak, wife of Anatole Litvak, the film producer.
I have been carrying out some personal researches in the last few months on 60s fashion and Courrèges in particular and I have decided to include in today’s post a selection of my favourite Courrèges quotes from 1965 to inspire readers and give a hand to all the fashion students out there who may be writing a dissertation on this designer.
I’m also adding in this post two of my favourite pictures relating to the designer's Spring/Summer 1965 collection.
The photographs show the two models who opened and closed the catwalk show.
The first model carried in front of a brief sun suit an auto racing flag of sequins, the last one closed the show instead with a suitable sequinned flag on which there was written “Fin” (The End) (impossible not to think about Maison Martin Margiela's S/S 2009 collection - View this photo - and Jean Charles de Castelbajac and Ashish's colourful designs covered in sequins...).
Enjoy the quotes!
“My father was highly suspicious of artistic professions. He was a head butler in a very rich British home. He reigned all his life over cooks and maids and never paid any attention when I told him, at 15, that I wanted to go to art school. ‘You’ll be an engineer,’ he said. I did finish an engineers’ school and eventually found myself at the head of 50 people in engineering research. I was the unhappiest man on earth. Suddenly I couldn’t bear it. At 28, I left a flourishing job to work for Balenciaga, handling fabrics. For $25 a month! The first five years there I learnt something new every day. The second five years were a waste. When I left I gave myself five years to reach a certain point. I have reached it in two, and discover that premature success is cumbersome.”
“I do stay in very tight touch with Pau, with my native land, with my sky, my mountains, where I find new strength. Pau has strongly oriented my life since early childhood. Once adolescence leaves you, you are dead. I feel my own so present inside of me.”
On sports:
“I transferred all my frustrations into a boundless love of sports. I climbed mountains, played soccer, Basque pelota, trained for distance running. I practiced team sports which is the best school to develop strength of character.”
On colours:
“I believe one can make women happier by bringing both more white and more colour into their lives. I’m sure that someday Paris streets will be as full of colour as one can see now on African and Asian streets. It’s ridiculous to focus on hemlines. Wearing my clothes is a question of spirit.”
On women, female attire and…against corsets, bras and high heels:
“Today’s women are archaic in appearance. I want to help them coincide with their time.”
“The woman who interests me doesn’t belong to any particular physical type. She lives a certain life, however. She is active, moves fast, works, is usually young and modern enough to wear modern, intelligent clothes. She is often American: they are so much quicker at picking up new ideas than the French.”
“Women of ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome had only two fates to choose from: be a courtesan or a mother. So they used heavy make-up. Logical, since all they had to do was to catch a man’s attention. But how about using the same make-up 4,000 years later? Preposterous! Take the 18th Century women. They teased their hair to a point that Bardot never dreamed of, but the huge skirts Marie Antoinette and her fans did wear re-established the balance between huge heads and small bodies. Logical approach again. But how about the huge heads that one still sees today on tiny, skinny bodies? Ridiculous!”
“I remember the year I was finishing school…I was going out then with a lovely girl of 15: Zouzou. I liked Zouzou. We used to take long bicycle rides together, go mountain climbing, live a healthy life…one day, I asked her out to dance…When I took Zouzou in my arms, a panic overcame me…my pal, that pretty Teddyboy, was wearing a corset. I was dancing with whalebones, not with a lovely kid of 15 any longer. Then and there I developed a horrified fear for that corset and dreaded the thought of having to come to its contact again…One day I told Zouzou: ‘You mustn’t wear such disgusting things…the day you’ll take it off you’ll be so beautiful, I shall burst with joy…’
“High heels are preposterous. They are just as absurd as the ancient practice of binding the feet of Chinese women. Boots are a more feminine solution – and more rational and logic. Beauty is logical.”
On luxury and his fashion house:
“Luxury in clothes to me has no meaning. It belongs to the past. My problem is not rich embroidery, useless lavishness – it is to harmoniously resolve function problems – just like the engineer who designs a plane, like the man who conceives a car. There is no real difference between them and me and, like theirs, my place should be in the anonymous shadow of a laboratory. But one cannot shake all habits at once, and 1965 customers still expect to see the designer, to chat with him, to ask him for personal fittings. Some day I’ll be finished with that waste of time.”
“My couture house is my laboratory. It is my closed-circuit race and, just like Indianapolis, would make no sense if the Ferraris and the Porsches did not explode from there to the commercial market after having been tested and having proved their performance. My creations must also enter the industrial phase. It remains the most important part of our venture. I shall come to it soon, I hope.”
On architecture (my favourite quote!):
“Le Corbusier is my only master. If I had the guts, I would leave it all today to become an architect.”
On famous women (some contemporary celebrities and many fashion houses out there may want to pay attention to Courrèges’ manners with the Duchess of Windsor…what about stopping the habit of giving free clothes to celebs?):
“Frankly I often don’t even know the names of my clients. When a client comes to me she must abandon herself to my hands. She leaves her identity, however famous it might be, behind, at the doors. To me a woman is far more important than a name. And if the woman doesn’t interest me, I won’t dress her. This week I dealt with a customer to whom I said, ‘Choose your outfit carefully because you are going to wear it out.’ ‘Won’t you dress me in the future?’ she asked. She had rightly understood me. I won’t.”
Finally the Duchess showed up. Taking her measurements, then making her fist fitting, which I always do myself, were like a true corrida. The Duchess the bull – and me the matador. During the whole time she never spoke a word to me, neither did I to her. Repeatedly but silently she pointed an angry finger to some defect in her left shoulder until I told my assistant, in Spanish, ‘Emmanuel take care of that.’ He did, while I was going on with my fitting, not disturbed in the slightest by the Duchess’ thick silence.
She couldn’t get over the shock. No house in Paris ever treated her like that. Monsieur Balenciaga is a grand seigneur, a nobleman, used to dressing noblemen’s wives. Never does he lose his grand manners. But his house, in turn, stretches flat like a carpet in front of any of Monsieur Balenciaga’s famous customers. Not here.
Anyway, after a 20-minute fitting I finally told the Duchess of Windsor, ‘And now, Madame, you can criticize.’ She smiled and told me that never before, anywhere, had she been given such a perfect fitting. But our troubles were not nearly finished. The Duchess got her coat, loved it, wears it a lot I see. But again and unwillingly we had to be firm and tough. Knowing the privileges established for her by other couture houses, our directrice told the Duchess’ secretary that the coat could not be delivered unless the right hand that would take the coat would at the same time hand us the Windsors’ cheque. It took a few days. But the Duchess gave in.”
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