Jean Dessès (6 August 1904 – 2 August 1970) was a Greek Egyptian fashion designer, who was among the most prominent couturiers in Paris from the 1930s to 1960. Known for his lavishly draped gowns, he was one of the preferred designers among the international aristocracy and was one of the Big Four of 1950s haute couture, the others being Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain and Jacques Fath.
Early life and education Yanis Demetrios Salvago was born in Alexandria on August 6, 1904, to one of the wealthiest families in Egypt. Both of his parents descended from the aristocracy of the Greek island of Chios, who fled to Egypt after the 1822 Chios massacre. His maternal great-grandfather, Konstantinos Choremis (1796 - 1878), established a cotton trading business in Alexandria; his maternal grandfather, Emmanouil Benakis (1843-1929), did the same. In 1876, the two companies merged to form Choremi, Benachi & Co., which became the largest cotton exporter in Egypt and one of the largest exporters in the world. Financing the cotton trade was the Salvago family; Dessès' paternal grandfather, Constantine Salvago, co-founded the Bank of Alexandria and the National Bank of Egypt. The children of the families inter-married; in 1901, Desses' father, Constantin Michael Salvago (1876-1948) married Virginia (Arghyro, or Argine) Benaki (1883–1972), who used the original spelling of her family's name and added 'Dessès' ('of the'), becoming known as Virginia Benaki-Dessès Salvago. In 1913, the couple built the grand Salvago Villa, designed by the French architect Jean Walter, where they raised their three children: Constantin 'Mike' (1902-1963), Yanis, and Julia ('Lila') (1906-2008).
Virginia was a cultured woman from a cultured family—her sister was the writer Penelope Delta; her brother was the art collector Antonis Benakis. She was known as one of the "Uncrowned Queens of Egypt", "one of Europe’s most beautiful women" and the Grande Dame of Alexandrian society. She too was an art collector, particularly of antique Persian jewellery and Ottoman textiles; most of her collection is now in the Benaki Museum in Athens, which was founded by Antonis. Virginia had been raised by French governesses and was the "toast of Paris" in her youth. While her children attended the Averofio Greek School, she maintained a European household; Arabic was not spoken in the house, her children's governesses were French and English, and her sons were called 'Michel' and 'Jean'. Virginia was the arbiter of fashion in Alexandria and employed her own seamstress. Jean grew up sitting in on his mother’s fittings, studying draping, pattern-making and fabric selection, and helping his mother organize her textile collection. He pored over fashion magazines from London and Paris and saw French and Italian films to see what the stars were wearing. By age 10, he was designing clothes; his first dress was a white organdy gown which his mother wore to a garden party. After that, he began making dresses for his friends and cousins.
Jean was smart and outgoing, with a winning personality. His family wanted him to become a diplomat. He was sent to the Lycée Français d'Alexandrie to study politics and economics, and then to the University of Paris Faculty of Law. He had no interest in his studies and spent most of his time sketching clothes. One of his friends showed his sketches to a dressmaker, now known only as Madame Jane Francois, who sought out Jean and offered him a job. Jean, then age 21, quit school and, for an annual salary of 150,000 francs, became the designer at Maison Jane. He styled himself 'Jean Dessès' and stayed at Maison Jane for ten years.
Career In July 1937, at age 33, Dessès opened Maison Dessès, in partnership with his cousins Constantin Salvago and Etienne 'Stefy' Salvago. Dessès was the minority partner; there were two other minority shareholders, and Stefy had the largest share. The business bought a six-storey Haussmann building at 37 Avenue George V. The salon's decor, by designer André Mercier, was white curtains, satin-covered purple and gray chairs, and white walls decorated with palm trees, palm leaf moldings, and palm leaf sconces.
Nothing is known about Dessès' time at Maison Jane but it can be assumed that he had developed a strong reputation, as his house received extensive media attention from the day it opened. Dessès held his first show in September 1937, when L'Officiel wrote that he "continues to be among the most interesting innovators in Couture". The reviewer noted his "mastery" with color, the "perfection of the cut" and that his details and trimmings combined to create a "high-class collection". Women’s Wear Daily lauded Dessès’ attention to detail and his creation of "Pre-War elegance" (meaning Edwardian). From September 1937 onward, Dessès was constantly in the media; in 1938 alone, coverage of shows at Maison Dessès appeared in eight editions of L’Officiel. That year, Dessès launched his first fragrance, Celui de Jean Dessès, a chypre-floral scent created by perfumer Paul Vacher and marketed as "the perfume as sweet as a secret". Also in 1938, Maison Dessès was the subject of a two-minute film by British Pathe called Fashion Comes to Paris!, which shows Dessès quickly 'making' a dress, although that is deceptive because Dessès' garments were complicated.
Dessès was known for his innovative cutting technique and mastery of draping. His gowns, usually of silk jersey, featured his signature: voluminous swags and draping and double- or triple-tiered hems. Sashes and bodices were intricately twisted over a boned base. Colors were pale pastels, often with varying shades of the same hue. He was fond of asymmetry and, instead of surface decoration, his ornamentation came from the structure of the gown, e.g. the closure of a dress would be covered with a gold and emerald clasp—most of his jewellery was designed by him and created by Mauboussin. He was particularly fond of creating 'transformation garments', which had layers or panels that folded out, or in, to turn a piece into something completely different.
During the Occupation, Dessès was able to stay open, but he adopted a more simple, clean-lined look. Obtaining certain fabrics was problematic, so his wartime dresses were of lightweight wool, canvas or crêpe; all crease-resistant, versatile and understated. At the time, his gowns were priced at 3800 francs, or the 2026 US equivalent of $2600.00. Also during the war, Dessès began designing costumes for films, dressing Michèle Alfa and Gaby André in L’Ange de la nuit (1944) and Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946). When the war ended in 1945, Dessès left Paris; his mother was moving her textiles and jewelry collection to the Benaki Museum; Dessès escorted the collection to advise on its display and spent a year in Greece, visiting its islands, villages and museums and developing an interest in traditional Greek clothing that influenced his work from then on.
During the war, the Greek royal family was living in exile in Egypt and was well-acquainted with Dessès' family. In 1946, the royal family returned to Greece and, while Dessès was in Athens, Queen Frederica was preparing to attend the wedding of Princess Elizabeth. She commissioned Dessès to make the wardrobe for her trip and, for the rest of his life, Dessès was the (unofficial) couturier to the Queen of Greece, and the women in her family. Between that, and his fabulous film wardrobe for Dietrich, Dessès garments were suddenly in demand by a much larger group of women, which included such style setters as the Duchess of Windsor, Tina Onassis, the Maharani of Jaipur and Jacqueline de Ribes, who became his muse.
Expansion When Dessès returned to Paris in 1947, he executed a major expansion of the House of Dessès. First, the salon was moved to No. 1 rue Rabelais, a grand building that was the former home of Gustave Eiffel. Lucien Lelong had abruptly closed his business, leaving hundreds of people unemployed; Dessès was able to hire most of them. The mansion centered around a large courtyard which became a venue for fashion shows, and it was next door to the ultra-exclusive Jockey Club, which supplied a steady stream of wealthy husbands. The décor, by Christian Dior’s decorator Victor Grandpierre, was peach and champagne; the walls were covered with Shantung and mirrors, and the lighting technique was the same as that recently installed at the Louvre. Dessès hired Guy Laroche as his assistant, and held his first post-war show in November of 1948. During this period, he designed the costumes for three films: he dressed Maria Schell in Nach dem Sturm (1948), Mary Marquet in Interdit au Public (1949), and Arlette Thomas in Le Paradis des pilotes perdus (The Hell of Lost Pilots). He also launched a second perfume, Eau Nouvelle Jean Dessès.
The reason for the expansion was that the House of Dessès was about to go into ready-to-wear and retail. On the ground floor of his building, Dessès opened the Soeurs Hortense (Hydrangea Sisters), two boutiques, one painted pink and one painted blue. One was for ready-to-wear garments, the other for accessories and hats, all at affordable prices. Initially, the stores sold small-batch items but, under the management of Dessès’ sister Lila Ralli, the concept was so successful that, in 1953, the boutiques were merged and expanded into the Dessès Bazaar. Here, there was a stage for fashion shows and women could buy made-to-measure dresses, hosiery, knitwear, jewelry, handbags, furs, and negligees.
Expansion to the USA In October 1949, Dessès made his first visit to the United States, accompanied by Ralli and Stefy. He spent seven weeks traveling the country, meeting with department stores and attending social events. He received a lot of attention—Women’s Wear Daily covered his arrival in New York, and his reception at Garfinckel's in Washington, where he told the media "You in America are experts in casual clothes creations, the French have mastered the art of creating formal clothes. Jointly we can offer a product that will bring greater awareness to quality fashions in the United States." In New York, he attended the Knickerbocker Ball, which featured socialites modeling 14 designs by top couturiers; the Dessès gown caused a sensation when it won "Gown of the Year" over the Dior gown. He was the special guest of Stanley Marcus at a luncheon in Dallas, and received a full feature in the Christian Science Monitor. Dessès told the media that he was only in the USA to acquaint himself with the market but, when he returned to Paris, he had sales contracts with Nieman Marcus, Marshall Field’s and Garfinckel's, and he had licensed negligee designs to the loungewear manufacturer Raymodes becoming, as Women's Wear Daily reported, the first Paris couturier to design negligées for Americans. His convertible cotton "hostess fashions" became all the rage, as did his gowns, which were favored by style icons such as Babe Paley and, in particular, Slim Keith, who became a close friend and muse.