[1] With a career spanning more than 40 years, he remained a favourite hatmaker of Sophia Loren (both for film and personal wear), also creating hats for Michael Jackson's 1988 world tour.

[4][5][6] After studying at art college in Toulouse, he left for Paris, working for the milliner Gilbert Orcel before setting up his own salon.

[4][10] By the mid 1960s, such was his client list that the Chicago Tribune said Barthet had: "more star quality customers than any Hollywood studio ever had under contract".

[11] These included names such as Sophia Loren, Natalie Wood, Brigitte Bardot and Princess Grace of Monaco.

[12][13] His collaborations with haute couture houses continued from his early career into the 1980s and he worked with, among others, André Courrèges, Chanel, Claude Montana, Sonia Rykiel, Paco Rabanne and Karl Lagerfeld.