1889-1958 Lucien Lelong

[DosViolines]

fitnyc.edu

Lucien Lelong (1889-1958) was the last in a long line of couturiers who were masters of every aspect of haute couture. Unlike today's couturiers who are primarily fashion designers, Lelong combined a keen business sense with a refined eye for modern design. He hand-picked designers such as Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy and developed their talents in order to realize his vision of the fashionable woman.

For nearly thirty years, the house of Lucien Lelong epitomized Parisian elegance, with a clientele at the crossroads of international high society and the arts. Lelong's beautiful second wife, Natalie Paley -- an exiled Russian princess turned fashion model and Hollywood actress -- typified the ideal Lelong client. Others included "Baba" de Faucigny-Lucinge, the Duchess of Windsor and Marlene Dietrich.

While master-minding the design and presentation of his collections, Lelong expanded his business in innovative ways and took a leading role in his profession. In 1934 he introduced Lucien Lelong Éditions, the first couture ready-to-wear line. His fashion empire included a perfume division, Parfums Lelong, which exists to this day. As President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne during the German Occupation, Lelong was most responsible for preventing the relocation of the haute couture to Berlin, saving the jobs of thousands of skilled workers.

[FONT=Verdana,Monaco,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]1. Lucien Lelong[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Monaco,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Peignoir
Silk crêpe chiffon, satin and lace
France, c. 1938
Gift of Sylvia Slifka

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Monaco,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]2. Lucien Lelong[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Monaco,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Dinner dress
Silk crepe-backed satin
France, c. 1937
The Museum at FIT [/FONT]

wikipedia.org

Lucien Lelong (1889-1958) was a French fashion designer. He trained at the Hautes Etudes de Commerciales, Paris and opened his own business in the late 1910s. He was well-known for beautiful fabrics and understated dresses and evening wear. Although he was not a particularly innovative designer as far as clothes go he was a pioneer of ready-to-wear and sold ready-made dresses which needed little adjustment to wear at his Paris boutique. These principal customers: Marie Duhamel, Colette, Jeanne Ternisien, duchesse de la Rochefoucauld, Greta Garbo... In the late 1930s he designed tight-waisted, full-skirted dresses reminiscent of the upcoming New Look of Dior.

Married and divorced twice, his second wife was Princess Natalie Paley (1905-1991), a daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his morganatic wife, Olga Karnova Lelong died of a heart attack after the failure of his new collection which prefigured (& some say was stolen totally by Yve St Laurent & used as the basis for Laurent's famous Peasant Look of the mid 1970's). There's some basis for this rumor in that Christian Dior (in whose fashion house St Laurent apprenticed)had originally apprenticed at Lucien Lelong's fashion house. The perfume line issued from the House of Lelong was often marketed in very well designed bottles (some by Lalique)& very clever packaging with stunning graphics.

 

[DosViolines]

mccord-museum.qc.ca

Dress
Lucien Lelong
1927, 20th century

 

[DosViolines]

tirocchi.stg.brown.edu

Lucien Lelong created a simple coat from a fabulous modernist textile. A velvet with long and short pile has been discharge printed in a bright modernist color scheme with swirls reminiscent of paintings by Italian futurist artists.

Lucien Lelong
French, 1889-1958
Coat, 1927
Silk; voided velvet,
fur collar

 

[DosViolines]

mccord-museum.qc.ca

Dress
Lucien Lelong
1928, 20th century
Fibre: silk (satin, chiffon, embroidery); glass (diamante); metal (gilt thread); ewn

This gown is representative of the extensive and rich collection of 20th-century couture clothing belonging to the McCord. The evening dress was designed by French couturier Lucien Lelong, one of the important couture names of the 1920s, whose reputation was based on his designs for clothes that were both elegant and feminine. Worn by Mrs. F. Cleveland Morgan, wife of the well-known Montreal museum benefactor, the gown was probably purchased by her on a European trip in the fall of 1928. In the latest style of the times, the dress shows a fashionable lengthening of the back hemline through the addition of broad streamers.

 

[DosViolines]

tirocchi.stg.brown.edu

Dress and Slip
ca. 1930
Silk; plain weave,
embroidered with paillettes

 

[DosViolines]

museums.leics.gov.uk

Summer Afternoon Dress, 1938 (around)

Lucien Lelong was one of the most influential designers working in the couture houses of Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. During the occupation of Paris (1940-1944), he was President of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture and was responsible for negotiations with the German authorities to enable the fashion system to continue throughout the war.

This evening dress is made of tiers of white silk organza. The bodice is arranged in horizontal rows of tiny vertical pleats which pass around the body. The full sleeves are supported by chiffon inner sleeves and are decorated with silk poppies, cornflowers and marguerites and embroidery in shades of green and yellow.

Although unlabelled, this dress probably comes from the last collection designed by Lelong before the occupation of Paris in 1940.

 

[buddleja]

thank you these dresses are gorgeous

 

[BerlinRocks]

i didn't even know him... thank you for this!

 

[DosViolines]

My pleasure

I only knew the name up until a few weeks ago

vam.ac.uk

Dress
1946
Silk velvet and silk taffeta

The fashion house of Lucien Lelong made extremely elegant clothes. This all-black evening dress with its trumpet line is a good example. It was made in 1946. The body of the dress is made of glossy silk velvet. A flared skirt of silk taffeta is joined to it at knee level. The dress once had a halter neck strap. This has been removed to create a more alluring strapless neckline.

 

[brian]

thanks so much for starting this thread... i have admired him for years... his work is some of the most stunning i've ever seen!

 

[liberty33r1b]

great thread!!

 

[gius]

lovely embroideries
and that red flower they left the edges frayed... looks very nice

 

[Scott]

all of this is so heavenly. thanks DV

i don't know if i ever heard of him. i may have for a moment in the past. but all the worth while to become accustomed because it is really beautiful.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Lucien Lelong is an integral part of couture history. It was he who encouraged Christian Dior to go out on his own and supplied him with the resources and even an atelier manager from his own staff. More importantly it was Lucien Lelong, while acting as president of the Chambre Syndicale, who convinced the Nazi Occupiers to keep Haute Couture in Paris, it was EXTREMELY close to being moved to Berlin. He argued that without the craftsmen and trades inherent to Paris and France couture would no longer be couture and could not be made. The Nazi's didn't like the idea that only France had something that Germany certainly could not provide. Many Couturiers resented the Nazis and it was Lelong who spoke up about it personally during the occupation.

 

[La bordélique]

The silk taffetas and silk velvet dress looks magnificent...

Honestly, I hadn't heard about him until today DosViolines!
I'm really glad you created this thread. I'm learning so much stuff.

 

[Salvatore]

A name I have never heard of, but some lovely pieces.

 

[Whitelinen]

Thank you Dos! We needed this thread.

 

[amandalepore]

Lelong is such an inspiration

 

[teiko]

Is the house still around??

 

[Idoru]

Lelong's contribution to fashion

It's so nice to see research and writing that I contributed to being posted here. I co-curated the only museum exhibition on the couturier Lucien Lelong for the Museum at FIT in Feb 2006. He was not exactly a designer, more like a taste-maker/creative director/genius businessman. He combined the luxury traditions of France with modern American business methods, creating the first luxury conglomerate. He worked with some of the most distinguished artists of the time, like Lalique and Christian Berard. He pre-dated YSL by 30 years in developing the first ready-to-wear for a couture house ever. He mentored and helped develop the careers of Pierre Balmain, Givenchy, and yes, Christian Dior. He helped save the Parisian couture system during WWII, by convincing the Germans not to move it to Berlin. His second wife was the enigmatic exiled Russian Princess Natalie Paley, who was photographed by the top photographers of her day. His clients were the most refined elegant women around. He closed his house in 1948, and died 10 years later. Wiki is wrong, he did not try to open his house back up after closing it. We believe that the real reason he closed his house was due to the lack of a real successor in the family (he only had one daughter, Nicole), and the fact that he realized that fashion in the late 1940's was veering away from his modernistic style and towards a more historicist look that restrained and confined the female figure. A company in NJ bought his perfume license...you can still buy some of them like Tailspin and Indiscrete. Please, if you want to know anything, just ask me. I will try to post some more photos....

Here is an article on the exhibition that appeared in WWD on March 3 2006:

Vogue, February 2006:

Vogue Italia, March 2006: