Word: lelong
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. Lucien Lelong, 68, Paris dress designer and parfumeur; of a heart attack; in Biarritz, France. As president of the fashion-ruling Chambre Syndicate de la Couture, Lelong persuaded the World War II Nazi invaders not to shift the fashion capital from Paris to Berlin because only in Paris could couture flourish, and German-dominated postwar Europe would need a flourishing couture to compete with Manhattan's Seventh Avenue...
Buttonhook, line and slinker, the Nazis bought the argument, let Paris' 60-odd dressmakers carry on business almost as usual. Among them: Lelong proteégeés Balmain and Dior...
...plump world-fashion dictator, designer of the New Look (1947) and the Flat Look (1954), supporter pf the Sack Look (1957); of a heart attack while playing cards on vacation in Montecatini, Italy. At 30 he launched his career as assistant to such shapemakers as Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong. After the war French Textile Mogul Marcel Boussac backed Dior, and a year later the designer had made fashion history, to remain fashion's tireless (13 hours a day) kingpin ever since, the much-publicized cause of the rise and fall of bosoms, the shrink and stretch of hips...
...committee of French winegrowers is currently distributing reprints of a sermon delivered in Vannes Cathedral by the Rev. M. H. Lelong. The Bible, says Roman Catholic Father Lelong, is full of wine-there are 443 Biblical references to it, in fact. "Along with bread," he writes, "it is wine that Jesus chose to perpetuate his presence among us. Wine is not an invention of the devil but a gift of our Father, who knows us and loves...
...success, Paris couture in general is in parlous economic shape. Eastern European markets (except for exiled royalty) have dried up. Currency and import restrictions have cut purchases from Britain, Spain, Scandinavia, Brazil and Argentina. Since war's end eleven major houses have closed (among them: Molyneux, Lelong, Paquin, Worth, Schiaparelli). The big houses make their money on sales to the U.S. and abroad, or on sidelines-perfume, hosiery, etc. But most depend on private individual customers, who even at Dior account for more than 60% of the total dress sales. Nowadays, few couturiers do much better than break even...