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Designer Gres

Madame Alix Gres (Germaine Emilie Krebs) was born in 1903 in Paris, France. She desired to be a sculptor, but without a fruitful career, she soon switched to women's hats making. Her first fashion house "Alex Couture" opened in 1934 was her shift towards couture.

Madame Gres designed her gowns in a fashion of a sculptor – directly on the bodies of her models. Very soon she became famous and her name became a synonym for elegance – 'The Star of elegance'. She created garments for royal families, aristocracy and celebrities of her time: Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh and others. One of her first muses was Isadora Duncan.

Several years after marrying Russian painter Serge Czerefkov (1937) the famous creator changed her name into Madame Gres in 1942, as it was an anagram of her husbands name and also his alias. Soon after they got married, her husband left France for French Polynesia and 'forgot to return'.

During the World War Two, the German occupation of France, Madame Gres, patriotic to the core, was creating clothes around the three colors of France – blue, white and red. The first perfume of the Gres house, Cabochard was created in 1958, after Madame Gres returned from her trip to India. Cabochard was inspired by new generation of perfumes Tabac Blond (1919), Cuir de Russie (1924), Scandal (1933), and Bandit (1944).

In 1982 Madame Gres had to sell her perfume business for the sake of her Haute Couture. The company Perfumes Gres was sold for several times until it was finally bought by Silvio Denz in 2001. Today the Perfumes Gres is based in Switzerland. The first perfume launched by the new owner was Cabaret (2003)., after which comes Cabaret Homme (2004) and Caline (2005).

Madame Gres died in 1993 in her house in the South of France, but her death was announced a year later, on December 14th 1994 in Le Monde.

Gres : website