Claude Montana
Claude Montana (29 June 1947 – 23 February 2024) was a French fashion designer. His company, The House of Montana, founded in 1979, went bankrupt in 1997. He was also nicknamed "King of the Shoulder Pad," designing aggressive silhouettes which came to define the ‘power-dressing’ era of the 1980s.[1]
Early life and design career
Born in Paris on 29 June 1947 to a
Creations
In 1981, Montana designed his first collection for men, called Montana Hommes, in which he focused on the color and material of each garment rather than trivial details. From 1990 to 1992 he designed haute couture collections for the
Personal life
On 21 July 1993, Montana married model Wallis Franken. It was a
Claude Montana died in Paris on 23 February 2024, at the age of 76.[40]
Author
In October 2010 it was announced that Montana and Marielle Cro were working on a coffee-table book documenting Montana's career. The book, "Claude Montana: Fashion Radical", includes photos and interviews with insiders who witnessed Montana's career firsthand. It came out in April 2011 in the U.S and U.K.[41][42]
Awards
- Best Women's Collection, Summer 1985, Paris.
- Best European Designer, Fall/Winter 1987/88, Munchener Modewoche, Germany.
- Balenciaga Prize for Best Designer, 1989.
- Golden Thimble Award, 1991, 1992.
References
- ^ "Claude Montana, troubled fashion designer known in the 1980s as 'King of the Shoulder Pad' – obituary". The Telegraph. 23 February 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
- ^ Romano, Lois (6 October 1985). "Shoulders of Fortune". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
...Once in London, he resorted to an old grade-school standby in order to make a living: papier-mâché. 'I remembered an old recipe where you take toilet paper and put it in some water and add some glue and cook it and you have paste.' With a little imagination, an eye for color, and luck, he designed a line of Mexican-style papier-mâché jewelry that did remarkably well in London. When he returned to Paris, though, he says, that city, 'wasn't ready for the look. It was too advanced'.
- ^ Russell, Mary (2 April 1978). "Fall Fashion Preview". The New York Times: SM19. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
Montana has been perfecting his leather styles for six seasons and leads the pack in quality and style.
- ^ Romano, Lois (6 October 1985). "Shoulders of Fortune". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
...[A]t 25, he became an assistant in MacDouglas, a well-known Parisian leather firm. Within a short time he developed into a formidable force in leather fashions and one of the innovators of the tough-looking butter-soft leather clothing of the '70s.
- ^ Hyde, Nina S. (29 October 1977). "And Now 'Punk Chic'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
At Claude Montana, the show began with 12 models marching on stage to loud band music in black leather jackets and leather caps and pants. Silvery chains looped through epaulets caused some viewers to assign a Nazi inspiration to the look.
- ^ Morris, Bernadine (11 April 1978). "Shaking Fashion". The New York Times: 30. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
Claude Montana's show was mobbed because six months ago [fall of 1977] he pioneered the pro‐Nazi look in black leather...coats...
- ^ Russell, Mary (12 November 1978). "How They're Wearing It in Paris". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
Claude Montana's belted and wide‐sleeved coat in the status 'fabric'- leather- has the broadest shoulders in Paris.
- ^ Russell, Mary (1 July 1977). "Paris Signals". Vogue. USA: 151.
Thierry [Mugler] and Claude Montana speak to each other every day...There is no competition among these designers; they all admire each other...
- ^ Morris, Bernadine (9 April 1979). "Paris Fashions Unveiled in Super Bowl Style". The New York Times: D8. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
Montana and Mugler both pioneered the giant shoulder‐pad movement last year [1978]...
- ISSN 0740-4921.
...Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler...dominated the Paris of the Seventies with aggressively padded shoulders.
- ^ Morris, Bernadine (15 October 1979). "In Paris, High Fashion's Latest Trip is to Outer Space". The New York Times: B14. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
Claude Montana...shoulders extended half a foot on each side by padding and huge shelflike sleeves...
- ^ Duka, John (13 November 1978). "Paris is Yesterday". New York. 11 (46): 111–112. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
On the Flash Gordon side of French ready-to-wear Retro are such designers as Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, and France Andrevie....At Montana, it took the form of...Italian fascist gone science-fiction fantasy....At Mugler,...a big-shouldered Flash Gordon jacket...
- ^ "Fashion View". The New York Times: SM6. 30 December 1979. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
...Claude Montana's Mongolian Martian Look and Thierry Mugler's Star Trekesque gigantic shoulders....
- ^ Hyde, Nina S. (12 December 1979). "Maud Frizon, the Designer Behind the Colorful Cone Heels". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
Paris designers Claude Montana, Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler and others used only her shoes in their recent collections.
- ^ Romano, Lois (6 October 1985). "Shoulders of Fortune". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
He says that, in a way, he is designing for the woman who doesn't exist anymore. 'That woman doesn't care about comfort, just about her look,' he says. 'It is the woman of Hollywood in the '40s. Today, everyone in the movies wants to look like the girl next door . . . I would love to have designed for the Hollywood of yesterday'.
- ^ Morris, Bernadine (27 February 1983). "The Directions of the Innovators". The New York Times. p. 132. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
Today's avant-garde designers -including the Frenchmen Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaia - strike out in many directions. But, while some seem radical, they are actually reworking themes from the past, borrowing from periods before the 1960's.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler both structured their jackets with their signature exaggerated shoulder padding.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
...[M]any Paris designers who came to prominence in the...Seventies established a style that assaulted the eye with aggressively padded shoulders and hard-edged, grand-scale proportions,...identified with the era [through] 1986. Claude Montana, Anne-Marie Beretta and Thierry Mugler were the leaders of this movement.
- ^ McColl, Patricia (17 March 1985). "Paris Takes a Wide View". The New York Times: 69. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
As for Claude Montana, who is to big shoulders what Alexander Graham Bell is to the telephone, fashion is simple: 'Shoulders forever,' he says.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Montana, in his spring collection, now attempted a less aggressive direction, mixing a black leather evening dress top embroidered with metal with a soft organza full skirt.
- ^ McColl, Patricia (14 October 1984). "Fashion Preview: Paris Goes Its Own Way". The New York Times: 101. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
Montana seems to have severely tempered his use of shoulder pads, which has been somewhat of a signature for him.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana's...shoulderless jacket with a plunging back cowl[,]....leather jacket...with a [trapunto]-edged, standaway portrait collar.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Montana's...jackets are cut with...protruding fronts that recall...the Edwardian (1901-1910) swan silhouette....[S]kirts sweep away from the stomach in the manner of a sculptured...pouch.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Montana's spring collection confirmed his stature in the Eighties with stunning architectural designs that suggest Arp sculptures.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana...has lost none of his fierce originality in leaping from his aggressively padded shoulder silhouettes of the past ten years to an unpadded, natural shoulder.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana...developed his trapeze line of last season into a smooth A-line pyramid executed with mathematical precision and esthetic integrity of shaping.
- ^ Hyde, Nina (22 March 1988). "Wearing the Pants in Paris". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
It is hard to imagine an appealing collection of only pantsuits. But Montana has produced not only that, but one of the most successful collections of the season....Montana's pants are mostly wide- legged, though others, tucked into shoes, appear to be stretch pants.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana...must also be credited with championing a fresh view of yard-wide trouser hems.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Gigli...introduced Renaissance brocades in great wrap coats with enormous fake fur shawl collars...Memorable signatures of the collection were soaring portrait necklines...[C]olossal winter coat...[with] high, head-framing collar...Gigli...frames the wearer in extravagantly handsome collars.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
...[Gigli's] head-framing shirt collars...The signature of [Gigli's] coat is the enormous shawl collar.
- ^ Finley, Ruth, ed. (1 March 1988). "Fall '88: Milan, London, Paris". Fashion International. XVI (4/5). New York, NY, USA: Fashion International: 4.
Paris: Details:...high-rise shoulder spanning collars that frame the face...
- ISSN 0740-4921.
...Claude Montana's coats with extravagant portrait collars...stretch the technical limitations of ready-to-wear to couture level and show a talent in full power....[C]oat with deep capelike collar...[C]oats sculpted with great flaring collars...Claude Montana's wired and sculpted evening jacket collar.
- ^ Hyde, Nina (22 March 1988). "Wearing the Pants in Paris". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
He led off his show with a jacket with a collar so tall it stood up like a cuff and almost swallowed the chin. He uses the treatment in coats as well.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
While the shoulders are natural and unpadded, several designs have soft, large, pleated shawl collars....[C]ollars fall in soft folds...
- ISSN 0740-4921.
...Claude Montana's...coat with an enormous cascading collar[;]....wafer-thin rippling collars.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Claude Montana's...shoulders are natural and unpadded.
- ISSN 0740-4921.
Montana's...shoulder pads have been removed, replaced by small shoulders...
- ^ Span, Paula (3 March 1991). "Fashion Victims". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
Fashion types have been twittering for months about the '60s revival...[W]e face Pucci-style prints, flipped hair with headbands and two-inch swaths of eyeliner on each lid,...[h]iked hemlines and...go-go boots...
- ^ Cunningham, Bill (1 September 1991). "The Rhythm of Fashion: The Fall 1991 Collections". Visionaire. 1 (3): 7.
This season [Paris designers] zeroed in on the 1965-67 work of former couture designer Jean-Marie Armand and his inventive, boxy, sharp-edged shapes, echoes of which resurfaced in the collection of Claude Montana. Other Montana influences were Pierre Cardin and Michel Goma, designer for Patou in the mid-Sixties. Montana was the most successful in picking up the spirit of the era and reinterpreting it in his own style...
- ^ Gabrielson, Maud (23 February 2024). "Le couturier français Claude Montana est mort". www.lemonde.fr. Le Monde. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- ^ "Claude Montana book coming out" Archived 10 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine Fashionlvr.com. 18 October 2010.
- ISBN 978-0500515396.
Sources
- Montana Website
- Claude Montana at infomat.com.
- Claude Montana at Fédération Française de la Couture.