There is always a lot of talk or speculation about revamping this or that historical fashion house. The latest maison that will soon go through a relaunch is Jean Patou.
In 2018 luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired a majority stake in Jean Patou from London-based Designer Parfums, a premium fragrances and beauty licensee. Simply called Patou and with former Nina Ricci creative director Guillaume Henry as artistic director, the house will present its first collection at the end of September during Paris Fashion Week.
Patou founded a first fashion house around 1912, but it wasn't very successful. Two years later he launched his eponymous maison and his house became the favourite of many actresses, among them also Jean Harlow and Louise Brooks. Considered the inventor of the tennis skirt and the first designer to popularise the cardigan, Patou also created the first-ever suntan lotion and a very popular fragrance - "Joy".
While fashion critics wonder if the luxury group will manage to work its "revamp magic" on Patou, it is worth remembering that, after the designer died in 1936, different designers took up the helm of the maison, including Marc Bohan, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix. Among them there was also Michel Goma who has been largely forgotten.
Born in 1932 in Moncrabeau, France, Michel Goma studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Montpelier and in 1951 he moved to Paris to pursue a career in fashion. He started selling his sketches and, from 1951 to 1958, he worked for Jeanne Lafaurie and eventually purchased the company and renamed it Michel Goma.
In 1963 he closed this company and joined the house of Jean Patou as chief designer (with Jean Paul Gaultier as assistant). He designed some very popular outfits for the house where he worked until 1973, and in his career he also created Carven's ready-to-wear collections and collaborated as a freelance designer with the Japanese Isetan stores (designing wedding dresses, glasses, luggage and even cars).
In 1987 he joined the house of Balenciaga where he designed the ready-to-wear line. He remained at Balenciaga until 1992, when Melchior Thimister took over. Soon after that, Goma retired and was forgotten. Yet if you find pictures of his creations for his own house or for the other houses he designed for, you will spot a Balenciaga-like precision.
Goma was indeed into well-sculpted shapes, simple and minimalist yet elegant and refined, as proved by the images in this post.
The first one refers to a dress with a sharp low cut neckline that forms a perfect triangle, while the ingenious way the sleeves are attached to the dress traces a geometrical motif that creates the illusion of a bolero. The second image refers to a stylish fitted dress with a blouse-like back that could be matched with a short bolero jacket (see third image in this post).
One of Goma's designs, a black evening gown with a modernist oval line created for Patou (1967-69), was showcased at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) in the space section of the "Expedition: Fashion from the Extreme" exhibition (2017-2018). Being characterised by a shape reminiscent to that of a rocket, the dress went pretty well with the lunar theme in this part of the event. So, while Goma wasn't an extremely well-known designer, rediscovering him would still be worth it for what regards his architectural shapes and silhouettes.
Comments