German Baron Christoph Drecoll, the founder of the court dressmaking house Drecoll in Vienna, was the name behind Maison Drecoll of Paris, even though Baron Drecoll did not design for the Parisian house. American Vogue (Nov. 15, 1925) sought to shed light on the little-known relationship between Maison Drecoll and Christoph Drecoll, writing ”There was no Drecoll connected with the Maison Drecoll of Paris, and there never had been.”
The intrigue began in 1895 when Baron Drecoll withdrew from couture and sold his fashion house and his name.
Per the terms of sale, the Drecoll name was not to be used for a dressmaking establishment in Paris. However, when the purchasers created the English corporation Ch. Drecoll Ltd. and opened a Parisian house with the same name in 1902, Baron Drecoll returned to the fashion industry by opening a house on the Rue de la Paix under the name Christof Drecoll. This venture opened and shut in the same year (1907) due to Baron Drecoll being sued by the investors who had bought his name; later Baron Drecoll opened fashion houses in New York and Berlin.
Ch. Drecoll, the Paris maison that used his name but not his designs, was very successful. The confusing Drecoll history is characterized by the two Drecoll houses that operated concurrently in four fashion capitals. The house that bought Drecoll’s name labeled clothing “Ch. Drecoll”, “Ch. Drecoll Vienne/Paris”, and then “Drecoll-Beer” (1929) and “Maisons Agnès-Drecoll”, (1931-1953) when, in order to weather the Great Depression, it merged with other fashion houses.
A side note: Included in the partnership that purchased Drecoll’s name were the Wagners, a Swiss-German couple who were the future parents of the designer Maggy Rouff.
Written by denisebrain
from a 1920s lamé coat
Courtesy of Augusta Auctions
