Jacques Doucet
(1853 - 1929)
Jacques Doucet was born in Paris, France in 1853. Before the age of twenty, Doucet inherited a lingerie store. Doucet Lingerie had been founded by Antoine Doucet and his wife Adèle Girard. Doucet Lingerie had flourished in the Rue de la Paix since 1816.
Edouard Doucet, took the firm over in the early 1850s. By 1870 Edouard was supplying the queen of Wurtemberg with couture garments. Royal commissions, awards at numerous international exhibitions, actress modeling and patronage, assured interest from a wide client base at Maison Doucet.
In 1874, Jacques Doucet opened a couture house where he created extravagant gowns made of lace, mousseline, satin and silk. He was famous for his delicate use of pastel colors, particularly iridescent silks, and for his use of fur as a lighter, softer fabric with which he created fitted coats. The house has also been credited with creating one of the enduring staples of a woman's wardrobe, the tailored suit or tailleur. Doucet garments were popular with American clients, and by 1895 American merchants were busily buying models to export and copy. By the end of the nineteenth century the couture house was one of the largest in Paris. Talented young designers such as renowned Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet worked for Doucet’s couture house.
In 1924, the house merged with the lesser firm of Doueillet, and the combined firms ceased business in 1932. Since 1925, Jacques Doucet’s collections were held in a house in Neuilly, as well as major works by De Chirico, Brancusi, Braque, Miro and Masson. Also his collections included furniture by Pierre Legrain, Eileen Gray and Marcel Coard, Doauanier Rousseau’s The Snake Charmer (bequeathed to the state) and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which he bought directly from Picasso’s studio, and art from Manet, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Modigliani and Douanier Rousseau.
Doucet was one of the best known and most highly respected couturiers of fashion history, he donated his collection of art books and research to the University of Paris when he died in 1929.
