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Our blog features our picks of the freshest vintage items, member news and articles. We have also created a growing series of articles on some classic designers.
The Vintage Fashion Guild™ (VFG) is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of vintage fashion.
The Vintage Fashion Guild™ (VFG) is an international community of people with expertise in vintage fashion. VFG members enjoy a wealth of resources, avenues for promoting their shops and specialties, and camaraderie with others who share a common interest and passion.
Marie Louise Carven, born Carmen de Tommaso (1909-2015), studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and founded the Carven haute couture house on the Rond Point des Champs Elysées in 1945.
She specialized in designing gowns for petite women (since one of her motivations for designing was to fill a gap in the market she had discovered for herself). An early signature look (literally, ‘ma griffe’) was a simple and fresh cotton green-striped, pleated dress, a design reflecting her desire to produce a discreet wardrobe to enhance the wearers, rather than overwhelm them. In Paris, Carven designs were worn by high society and celebrities, including Edith Piaf. In 1978, Air France hostesses wore Carven-designed uniforms.
Carven also had great success in the late 1950s and 1960s overseas, in territories such as Egypt, Brazil and particularly the Far East, where her designs represented the epitome of French chic, while providing a better, and conscientiously flattering fit for smaller-proportioned figures. Madame de Tommaso returned the compliment by using novelty prints inspired by her voyages to these countries.
The long-lived Carven scarf collection was launched in 1955, along with a girls’ line called ‘Carven Junior’. In 1956, a sweater collection was produced under license. The first Carven perfume was launched in the late 1940s, and the ‘Parfums’ division has remained a significant licensed sideline. Marcel Fenez produced a prêt á porter line for Carven in the early ’60s.
The heavy licensing of Carven in the 1980s and 1990s overshadowed its couture origins, but the late 1990s saw an effort to restore direction to the label, and it began producing a regular haute couture collection, which as of 2002, was designed by Pascal Millet. In 2009, men’s and women’s ready-to-wear lines were launched.
Madame Carven died in 2015 at the age of 105.
See also: Marcel Fenez
Written by vintage-voyager.com
Courtesy of nictesla
Courtesy of vintage-voyager.com
Courtesy of emmapeelpants
from a late 1940s dress
from an early 1960s ready-to-wear cocktail dress
from an early 1960s black faille cocktail dress
from a 1960s necktie
from a 1960s Alcantara coat
from a 1980s jacket