Grès

[2][3] Formally trained as a sculptor, she produced haute couture designs for an array of fashionable women, including the Duchess of Windsor, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Dolores del Río.

[4] Her signature was cut-outs on gowns that made exposed skin part of the design, yet still had a classical, sophisticated feel.

She was renowned for being the last of the haute couture houses to establish a ready-to-wear line, which she called a "prostitution".

[5] Grès enjoyed years of critical successes but, after Grès herself sold the business in the 1980s to Yagi Tsucho, a Japanese company, they hired Lloyd Klein as the artistic director for the entire house supervising 46 licencies between Paris and Japan.

After the death of Madame Grès, Lloyd Klein left the house to continue his collections in New York.