Gres

Madame Alix Grès (born Germaine Emilie Krebs) was born in 1903 in Paris, France. She wanted to become a sculptor, but without a fruitful career, she quickly turned to women's hat making. Her first fashion house, "Alex Couture", opened in 1934 and was her turn towards couture.

Madame Grès designed her dresses as a sculptor - directly on the body of his models. Very soon she became famous and her name became a synonym for elegance - "The Star of Elegance." She created clothes 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 the Russian painter Serge Czerefkov (1937) changed the famous coined her name to Madame Grès in 1942, as it was an anagram of her husband's name and also his alias. Shortly after they were married, her husband left France for French Polynesia and "forgot to come back."

During World War II and the German occupation of France, Madame Grès, patriotic to the core, created clothes around the three colors of France - blue, white and red. The first perfume from the House of Grès, Cabochard, was created in 1958 after Madame Grès returned from a trip to India. Cabochard was inspired by a new generation of perfumes, including Tabac Blond (1919), Cuir de Russie (1924), Scandal (1933) and Bandit (1944). emma.co.uk has offers on these popular perfumes.

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