PAQUIN THE DRESSMAKER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2128, 29 February 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

PAQUIN THE DRESSMAKER.

DIES IN PAULS

The Paris correspondent of the Duly Telegraph records the death, at the age of 45, of Isidore Paqum, the world-renowned dressmaker, whose rise in fame was romantic. He was born in Paris in 1802, and Jus parents bad at one time conducted a small business in the provinces. He began as a bank clerk, after completing his course of studies at a Ivcee, soon rising to a position of confidence, and, young as he was, was appointed director ol the branch establishment at Levallois of the Bernhard Charpentier Bank. Having married very early a saleswoman in one of tho big dressmakers bouses of Paris, be left the bank and became a partner, together with his young wife, in a little costumier’s business, known as “Maisou Lana line,” which has long ceased to exist. Their united capital was very small, and few would have imagined, when he opened a house ill 1889 in his own name, at the ago of 27, that he was laying the foundation of what was to he one ol the largest firms in this city. As proof of the extraordinary success which attended his efforts, it is pointed out that 'seven years later, .ill 1896, lie converted and sold his business to a company with a capital of 12,(X)0,000f., and soon after was decorated with the Legion of Honor. Paquin was one. of the three or four big dressmakers of Paris, and his position was almost unique. In one way, he had understod, perhaps, more than any other man in his trade in

France the commercial possibilities to he developed across the Channel. Most French Couturiers let the English woman come to them. Paquin went to the Englishwoman, and attracted her to ill's shop in her own city. His business in London was as great as in Paris, and .some say, greater. He was an entlnisiasticsupporter of the entente cordiale, which brought him a fortune. Still, his Parisian business was not neglected, and his shop is tlie largest in t lio Rue do la Paix where .it consists, in fact of two whole houses, with beflowered balconies. Tlie custom of Pnquin’s includes all sorts and conditions, and the firm has no special clientele. It laid itself out not only to capture English custom, but to develop a large business in America, and succeeded. American buyers, who flock to Paris twice a year, would perhaps prefer to miss any show of models rather than at Paquin’s. Paquin himself found this popularity becoming a little overwhelming. American lady artists in disguise drew his models, which were pirated in the States boforo they had been legitimately visible. _ So keen a man of business was quick to fight such competition effectually, and he formed a league binding all the great Paris dress-mak-ers who belonged to it not to show their models to anyone before certain dates to lie decided upon by them for' the different seasons.

Twenty years ago, when Worth, Doucet, and others were still the undisputed masters of fashionable productions in Paris, little was known or Paquin, who from an obscure position as a small costumier, was gradually making his way among the exclusive of the Rue do la Paix. In a lew years, however, his name became famous, and from that day on he ranked among the first, his establishment in the Rue do la Paix with its florid balconies, slimmer and winter, and its crowded trying-on and essnyago rooms, becoming a conspicuous fo.ituro. The latest addition to his enterprise was the fur department, which lie established oil u vast basis, with branches all over (ho world, and so comprehensive was his scheme that ho bandied thousands of furs, buying them direct from the trapners, and having his own ships and railway cars to bring them to Paris, curing and dressing, and fashioning them in his own workshops before they were given into the hands of the midinottos of Paris

The number employed by him varied, of course, according to tlie season of tbe year, but it lias been sain, that it has never been loss than Su'd, and sometimes as high as 2000. Considering that all these hands were occupied in practically a speciality, simply producing as rapidly and as artistically as possible tlio latest creations of the fashion designer, and that a great. Parisian dressmaker’s business does not extend into tbe general dry goods business, as is mostly tlio case in other countries, it is evident that, from a fashion point of view, ho occupied a dominant situation. And yet his popularity was constantly increasing, so that his premises iii the Rue do la Paix were practically too small for him. There is no doubt that all the industrous midinettes of Paris will deeply regret tlieir popular “patron.”