Two Second Empire silk day bodices. The first circa 1855 in - Lot 266

Textiles & Modes Avant-Garde XXe siècle - Collection Vesscheringe-Brard-Palmyre - and miscellaneous

Expertise Serge Liagre

If you wish to include lots, please contact us losay@richardmdv.com / 04 28 39 00 20

Exhibition Thursday and Friday from 10 am to 6 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 10 am.

Collection of lots on sale day (Caraco workshop)

Collection of lots at the Hôtel des ventes de Villefranche from October 14.

Textile & Fashion Archives by Claire Brard and Viviane de Vesscheringe.

In 1967, their inspiring Moroccan period, alongside that of Yves Saint-Laurent, took them from Marrakech to Rabat, where their second collection was shown at the Hilton Hotel to the Parisian women's press. In Paris, they frequented the artistic world of the second half of the 20th century, with escapades in Hong Kong at the invitation of Maison Hermès, then China, where they exhibited in 2004 and 2005 in Shanghai, India, from where they imagined memorable Orientalist-inspired festivities for their return to France, in the tradition of Paul Poiret or the Marquis de Cuevas. Their universe remains couture creation, of course, but they also enhance this feminist soul through the glamour of the 1970s-1980s. Sometimes, at Claire & Viviane, eighteenth-century inspiration colors their collections, and they do it better than the others!

Their dresses, jewelry, hats, small bags, veils and gloves create a poetic vision of a free woman, both in Paris and Saint-Tropez, immortalized by the great photographers: Sarah Moon Mard Hispard, Helmut Newton, Peter Knapp... an aesthetic, very Tropezian environment of permanent celebration and assertive optimism.

This couple were avant-garde in the 60s-70s-80s in Paris under the Vesscheringe-Brard label, then in Saint-Tropez in the 90s-2000s under the Palmyre label. There's also their personal collection of textiles for the home, with a number of leading editors including Suzanne Fontan. These archives offer a panorama of French textile creation in the last third of the 20th century, with many robracks from famous houses, lengths of Haute Couture textiles synonymous with a vanished savoir-faire, a few prototypes, but also their documentary wardrobe.... Above all, this collection reflects an experienced eye for choice, which enabled Claire and Viviane to extract the very best of French artistic creation from their period. Sadly, they had no financial mentor when they set up shop in Place Vendôme, even though they were supported by the press that counts (New York Herald, Woman's Wear, le Figaro...) despite having the reputation of the most famous. Recent valuations by the Institut Mode Méditerranée and deposits with French institutions are a wake-up call..... Attention Talents!

"...We're at the heart of the fashion novel of the sixties, seventies, eighties (and beyond), whose nostalgia is poignant...We follow you on journeys urbi &orbi, in the hollow of your suitcases and your emerveillements. From Paris to Saint-Tropez, from China to India...back when the earth wasn't shrinking before the virtual blows that nail us in front of our screens..."

(excerpt from a text by Marie-Clémence Barbé-Conti, journalist, writer and former editor-in-chief of AD magazine, FIGARO, etc.).