Jacques Fath
(1912-1954)
Jacques Fath was born in the outskirts of Paris in 1912. He came from an artistic family; his grandfather being a successful artist named Rene-Jacques Fath, and his grandmother an artist who worked as a fashion illustrator. After completing his military service
and realizing his creative nature; Fath enrolled in drama school and took drawing and pattern cutting classes during the evenings. During this period, Fath met Genevieve Boucher de la Bruyere, who later, in 1939, became his wife. Genevieve was a photographer’s model and also a drama student. She later modeled Fath’s early creations and came to typify the elegantly finished style of the Jacques Fath woman.
In 1945, Fath introduced his first perfume called “Chasuble,” and a year later, in 1946 he introduced his second perfume called “Iris Gris.” In 1948 he signed a contract with the New York manufacturer Joseph Halpert. His collections became popular, more so, when Rita Hayward chose him to design her wedding dress and trousseau for her marriage to Prince Aly Khan in 1949. He designed costumes for several movies both in the United States and in Europe. His costumes for Moira Shearer in the famous film The Red Shoes (1948) were considered classics.
His spring collection in 1950 caused a sensation when it was displayed with dresses featuring a plunging décolletage accompanied by starched wing collars fastened with a bow tie; look that later became identified with Playboy bunnies.
Jacques Fath died tragically in 1954, at the age of forty-two. After his death wife Genevieve Fath took over the running of his business until 1957, when the business was closed. Fath's name continued as a perfume label until 1992, when it was acquired by various companies.
Jacques Fath was regarded as one of the “big three” Paris designers in the early 1950s, along with Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain.
