After two years of training when I
was young, I passed the CAP (Certificat
d'Aptitude Professionnelle) to become a
hat designer or milliner, and after
watching the sumptuous salons and the
fashion shows, I felt myself attracted
by the world and ambiance of high
fashion. I chose to get involved in
sales after listening to the good advice
of the salesperson from the fashion
department. The buyer who kind of liked
me contacted the representatives of the
fabric suppliers and that is how I was
sent to Pierre Balmain's boutique since
they were looking for a beginner
salesperson. Therefore I had to take
English classes from Berlitz at night
located at Place de l'Opera.
DANIELE GEORGIOU'S
ACCOUNT TO SET THE STAGE FOR MY MOTHER'S STORY
I applied for a job with that great
high fashion designer, Pierre Balmain,
44 rue Francois I, a stone's throw from
the Champs Elysees. (600 employees at
that time.) When I arrived, the director
was not there yet, the sales manager
told me to come back an hour later.
Barely out of the boutique, I had made
up my mind not to come back. Being very
shy, I had been very much impressed and
intimidated by what I saw. The next day,
my parents received a telegram for
another appointment. So I went back
saying how sorry I was and then I was
warmly welcomed.
I started working on August 1, 1956
and soon after I felt I was in my
comfort zone and I was very excited by
my job working with customers and in
time I conquered my timidity. The same
year, I met Karl Lagerfeld, a very kind
and pleasant man who was then starting
out as a fashion designer at the studio.
M. Mortensen was then M. Balmain's
assistant. It is by working with M.
Molinari, the Sales Director, who was
well known in the Paris crowd, that I
learned the basics of the job by
listening and watching him involved with
a very wealthy clientele. The
collections were presented twice a year,
spring/summer; fall/winter for the high
fashion as well as for the small
collection.
At 11 o'clock, every morning, there
was the presentation with the runway
taking place in the grand salons on the
first floor .We were supposed to take
turns to bring the clothes upstairs from
the basement, then take them down one
by one, which necessitated quite some
physical effort on our part. After
welcoming the clientele and making them
feel comfortable, we would make
announcements from the podium and
describe the clothes that all bore a
special name.
When the clients came down to order
and purchase what they wanted, it was
always a busy and bustling time for us
as we were surrounded by the crowd. In
the afternoon, things would settle down
when the clients would return for their
personal appointment to look again at
what they wanted to purchase and try on
the clothes in the fitting room. Then we
would take many orders. At the same
time, our job was to accompany the head
seamstress to do the retouching. There
were three fittings up to the day of
delivery. There was often scheduling to
deal with at the occasion of weddings,
cocktails, receptions or trips overseas.
When there were too many
deliveries, I would go and help in the
packaging service for the most urgent
deliveries. Sometimes, I would take a
cab to deliver in the most prestigious
Parisian palaces. A faithful French and
foreign clientele would come every
season and ask for their favorite sales
ladies. I really enjoyed that personal
human contact except for a few more
demanding women. It was not always easy
with some, you had to be very patient. I
especially remember a certain client who
was a psychiatrist and who was pretty
much impossible. She would show up
without warning to try something on. She
would say that I had made a mistake
scheduling her appointment. She was
often mean and in a bad mood, demanding
to be taken care of immediately, until
the day when I lost my patience with
her. I told the Director that I would
not take care of her any more (although
she had given me a small heart and a a
gold chain from Perrin, a jeweler from
Place Vendome). She was politely thrown
out. It turned out that crazy woman had
been thrown out of several fashion
houses.
Sometimes, at the time of a haute
couture presentation at 15:00, we also
had to help dress the models very
quickly. There was a certain
effervescence in the fitting room. There
was much hustle and bustle that was very
contagious during the preparations of
collections and rehearsals. In that
great ambiance, I had the privilege to
meet many personalities, Ministers'
wives, Queens and Princesses of all
countries but also movie stars and
comedians. I also had the chance to
discover the most beautiful places when
participating in the runways outdoors,
and visiting the clients who had
weddings, receptions, visiting Maxim's,
La Tour d'Argent (Famous restaurant),
the Cascade du Bois de Boulogne, the
Baltard Pavillon in Nogent. Among that
wealthy clientele, I have always
appreciated that world in spite of
having a very tiring job. I had the
chance to do fittings in downtown Paris
for several clients.
That is why I flew to Nice for the
very first time to accompany the head of
the sewing workshop to do alterations
for a client living in Nice, a trip all
paid for by Pierre Balmain's Boutique.
We were invited to a wonderful lunch in
a beautiful villa overlooking the
Mediterranean Sea.
For many years I was the right hand
of M. Molinari. Both of us had the most
important clientele and we made the
biggest turnover among the ten
saleswomen. During the sales period that
lasted for a week in May and in
November, it was like a stampede with
very hectic and stressful days. By
myself, I was able to make quite a lot
of money taking care of several clients
at the same time. In spite of very long
days of work, we were overjoyed to take
a break with wine, salami and dessert.
(I was the one in charge of grocery
shopping).
Sometimes Monsieur Balmain would offer
us champagne congratulating us for the
record sale of the day. In the sixties,
we could make as much as a million
Francs a day ($2000).
I often had
the chance to get very large tips during
the Christmas season and after the final
fittings. The head seamstress also
received the same amount of money up to
five hundred Francs. I was also given
beautiful presents for my children's
birth. Being always very generous, M.
Molinari would give me beautiful gifts
such as a pearl necklace, a mink tie and
a mink fur hat, perfumes, everything
with an envelope containing a hundred
Francs. He was always very kind and
caring towards me at any time and often
would take me out to eat. I was very
spoiled.
There was much joy and cheerfulness
in the boutique and he made us laugh
often because he had a very good sense
of humor. On the other hand, when he
needed my attention a little too much
asking for my help, I would
sometimes suddenly leave the boutique to
get some fresh air and come back thirty
minutes later after walking around the
block a few times. When I would come
back, he would be there welcoming me
with open arms saying how sorry he was
and kissing me on the cheek. He was so
afraid I would not come back.
We shared a deep friendship and
complicity together. He would often tell
me that I was his doppelganger and that
he did not know what to do when I was
not there. When he retired, I continued
to visit him and keep him company until
he passed away.
November 25 was Saint Catherine
Day, the patron saint of fashion. A day
of fun and costume, cocktails, and
restaurant: finishing up with a grand
ball in one of the most famous Parisian
salons. (I went to Maxim's twice and had
lunch on the bateaux mouches). When the
day for medals came, I received a gold
medal for ten years and then for twenty
five years of working at Pierre Balmain,
the silver gilt cup for twenty five
years and the medals of the Ministry of
Labor.
In 1956, and the following years, I
would write to my husband Claude
everyday during my lunch break, after he
left for the war in Algeria and would
hurry to drop off my letter to the
nearest mailbox close to work, before
going back to work. In the boutique,
there was always a family-like ambiance.
Having no news from him in 3 weeks, the
director Madame Rameau sent a colleague
to the Ministry of the Army to find out
if he was not missing in action. It was
kind of her to do so and made me feel
reassured. I would take advantage of my
two hour lunch break to visit the
seamstresses and learn their skills when
later on I made my own dresses and those
of my daughter Sylvie.
We were given five weeks off every
year. Two weeks in winter and three
weeks in summer. Among the other
advantages, we were allowed to get two
Pierre Balmain outfits every season we
could choose from the collection models.
It was also the custom to offer each
employee her own wedding dress.
Therefore, I chose to wear a very simple
short dress because I did not want a
train and nobody could figure out why.
At Christmas time, I also learned
how to wrap up the presents at a very
accelerated pace which I did enjoy. And
then the inventory would come at the
beginning of January, a task that would
keep us busy for a whole month writing
down everything. I did appreciate being
able to sit down to work.
In 1985 I was promoted to be in
charge of the sales boutique or discount
boutique, rue Laffitte in the 9th
arrondissement. I accepted that position
with the condition to reach the statute
of cadre or executive as well as being
able to return rue Francois 1er in case
things would not turn out. Which
happened ten months later. I got easily
bored in that boutique because it was so
different and the turnover and the type
of clients were not at all the same.
The Pierre Balmain Director asked
me to become the co-director with Eva, a
saleswoman of La Haute Couture . There
were not any more presentations on the
runways, we were only dealing with Pret-a-Porter
with some fittings but we always had
many sales.
My last couple of years I was
transferred to La Boutique Hommes or
Menswear. Although it was a very
different experience for me, I did like
that position with nicer clients, easier
to wait on and especially quicker to
make up their mind.
Starting out at 18, I was lucky to
be able to retire early at the age of
57, in 1994 after 38 years of work. I
now realize that I would never have been
able to have another profession because
of being around such a privileged
environment that only exists in the
world of haute couture or high fashion.
We all worked very hard and it was
always in a cheerful and happy setting.
I had the privilege to meet people
from high society; it was very pleasant
to wait on and above all, be able to
watch wonderful collections on the
runways. What is being shown today has
nothing to do with what I have
experienced. The summary of my
professional career explains why I
remained so long in that exceptional
environment that has kept me fascinated
and that I remember with fond memories.
That profession taught me a lot and
made me discover a different world by
being around a very wealthy clientele.
After Pierre Balmain's death in 1982,
Mr. Eric Mortensen succeeded him.
Pierre Balmain had been a renowned high
fashion designer who founded his
business in 1945, specializing in
creating sumptuous evening dresses. He
dressed many celebrities in the city as
well as on the stage.
Here is the list of the many
celebrities he dressed and that I met at
the same time by taking the same hallway
through the boutique. Among the crown
heads of the world, the Countess of
Paris and her daughters and among them
her oldest daughter( the princess
Isabelle), Anne Claude de France, the
Princess Bernadotte de Bourbon Parme,
the Duchess of Luxembourg, her daughter
the Princess Margaretha, the Queen
Fabiola of Belgium (wife of King Baudoin),
the Princess Maria Pia of Yugoslavia,
the Princess Marie Gabrielle of Savoie,
the Queen Hanako of Japan, the Queen
Sirikit of Thailand, the Queen Sonya of
Norway, the Queen of Jordania (wife of
King Hussein), the Princess Soraya (wife
of the Shah of Iran) as well as numerous
other princesses of the Arab Emirates.
A few Ministers's wives: Mrs.
Raymond Barre Prime Minister of France,
Mrs. Giscard d'Estaing whose husband was
President of France, Mrs.Chirac, wife of
the President of France, Mrs. Papon
whose husband was Minister of Finance,
Mrs. Marcel d'Assault famous French
Industrialist, Mrs Peugeot.
Movie stars: Roger Vadim, Sammy
Davis Junior, Claude Dauphin, Francis
Perrin, Pierre Mondy, Among those who
accompanied their wives, Henri Salvador,
Julien Clerc, Gilbert Becaud, Serge
Gainsbourg.
Annie Girardot, Simone Signoret,
Michele Morgan, Rosy Varte, Dany Robin,
Edwige Feuillere, Francoise Arnoult,
Stephane Audran, Simone Renan, Brigitte
Fossey, Nadine Taillier (became Mrs de
Rotschild), Martine Carol, Micheline
Presle, Micheline Dax, Marina Vladi,
Brigitte Bardot, Miou Miou, Sophie
Desmarets, Claudia Cardinal, Suzanne
Flon, Odile Versois. I also had the
chance to meet Bernard Tapie (French
tycoon, businessman and politician).
Foreign movie stars: Sophie Loren,
Kathryn Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Rita
Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Natalie Wood,
Anita Ekberg, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene
Dietrich, Lana Turner, etc.
The singers: Juliette Greco, Line Renaud,
Annie Cordy, Dalida, Jane Birkin, Jessy
Norman, Maria Callas, Nina Simon. I
personally took care of Line Renaud and
of Nina Simon.