Claude Montana

Claude Montana (born Claude Montamat , * 1949 in Paris ) is a French fashion designer and designer . He is the founder of the Parisian fashion and cosmetics company Montana , which had its heyday in the 1980s.

Life

Montana grew up as the son of a Catalan father and a German mother with two siblings in Paris. He spent the swinging sixties in London, where he created fashion jewelry. In the early 1970s, Montana returned to Paris, worked as a freelance illustrator and under contract with the Paris Opera . In 1974 Montana, who had no formal training in fashion, took a position at the Parisian leather manufacturer MacDouglas, where he rose to head designer. In the 1970s, Montana, like his colleagues Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld , worked for the Italian designer Mario Valentino.

From 1976 Montana presented fashion in Paris under his full name, which he had changed from Montamat to Montana. His designs received good reviews from the press, but hardly any orders from fashion buyers. In 1977 Montana staged its first two big fashion shows with great crowds and showed, among other things, punk leather outfits in black with daring references from the gay scene and the S&M milieu on the catwalk . This radical aesthetic of the militaristic, black leather cuffs earned him the charge of being inspired by National Socialist ideas. In 1979 he founded his fashion company Montana and expanded the portfolio in 1981 under the name Montana Hommes to include men's fashion.

In the 1980s, Montana, known for its extravagant lifestyle in Parisian nightlife, became a star in the Parisian fashion sky with its narrow, futuristic leather designs. Daring leather outfits, bright plain colors, bulky shoulder pads , oversized collars, tight waists or tight-fitting fabrics, the use of furs and lots of gold or metal were elements of his avant-garde , aggressive fashion for self-confident power women. In this he resembled his colleague Thierry Mugler , with whom he had shared an apartment in Paris in the early 1970s. Montana's nicknames were "the architect of the shoulder pads" or the "king of non-colors". Stars like Diana Ross , Cher and Grace Jones as well as Jeanne Moreau and Charlotte Rampling were among Montana's prominent customers. Between 1982 and 1987 he was also responsible for the fashion collections of the Italian fashion house Complice . In 1983 the first Montana boutique opened in Paris. In 1986, in collaboration with Lancaster, the first perfume named Montana Parfum de Peau was launched for women; the first men's fragrance, Montana Parfum d'Homme , followed in 1989.

At the end of the 1980s, Montana had negotiated a lucrative license agreement for the production of its fashion with the Italian fashion manufacturer GFT and granted Alain Mikli a license for glasses . After design offers from Dior and Givenchy , which Montana turned down, he accepted Lanvin's invitation in 1989 to design “for a million euros” exclusively for their haute couture division. The first collection received bad reviews in 1990. In the following two seasons, however, his luxurious designs were cheered and rewarded with two consecutive Dé d'or awards (German: 'Goldener thimble', French Haute Couture price). After another year, however, Lanvin canceled Montana's contract because he had spent huge sums of money on his creations, which had barely sold, and caused the company to lose $ 25 million. In 1992 the cheaper second line State of Montana was added to the Montana range . In its prime, Montana owned a villa on Capri and an 18th-century castle in France.

With the emergence of minimalist , simple fashion from the beginning of the 1990s, Montanas continued to lose extravagant designs more and more of their appeal. Demand from customers and retailers dropped dramatically and Montana had to close stores. Montana was the managing director of his company and filed for bankruptcy in November 1997 after changing licensees several times due to over-indebtedness . Between 1995 and 2000, the Clarins cosmetics company held the Montana perfume license. In 1997, Montana had annual sales of around 33 million francs, of which 26 million was attributable to the licensing business. In 1998, the former Nina Ricci manager Jacques Berger and a consortium led by Dynaction took over Claude Montana SA , which was renamed Montana Création . The indebtedness at this time amounted to nearly 60 million francs. Numerous other licenses were granted under Berger and Dynaction. Montana itself received a 10-year contract until 2007 and continued to design Montana fashions during this time, which were produced by licensees. In addition, in 1998 the men's fashion was licensed to the German Bäumler Group from Ingolstadt (license revoked in 2002) and in 1999 the Montana Blu collection with sportswear-heavy fashion was launched, which was also manufactured by Bäumler under license. The Montana company and all naming rights were sold in July 2000 to the French businessman Jean-Jacques Layani, who still owns it and manages the Montana licensing business. The last Montana fashion show, at which Claude Montana bowed to the audience on the catwalk for the final applause, took place in 2002. The designer Stéphane Parmentier was appointed to succeed Claude Montana for one season, and there have been no Montana catwalk shows since then. Claude Montana then retired to Spain .

In 2013, Claude Montana designed three models for the fashion collection of the French fashion designer Éric Tibusch and appeared with him on the catwalk at the end of the fashion show in Paris.

Montana married Wallis Franken on July 21, 1993, who had already run as a model in his fashion show in 1977 and has been his muse ever since . Montana has two stepchildren whom Franken had with Philippe de Henning . Franken fell from her hotel room to her death in Paris in 1996. Before his marriage to Franconia, Montana had been openly gay . Montana's personal trademarks were a leather blouson or a bomber jacket and cowboy boots . The rose "Montana" is named after him. Montana has lived in Paris' 1st arrondissement since the mid-2000s .

Web links

Website of Montana Création SA

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Montana Mystery , vanityfair.com, September 13, 2013
2. ^ Died - Mario Valentino , February 4, 1991
3. ^ Fashion - Victims of the Kirmes , spiegel.de, October 31, 1977
4. ↑ Großer Zaster , spiegel.de, March 28, 1983
5. ↑ Claude Montana - Fashion's lonely survivor , WWD via blogspot.com, October 18, 2010
6. ↑ Claude Montana: Did his wife die by suicide? , welt.de, May 31, 2009
7. ^ Paris - Naughty Nineties , spiegel.de, January 29, 1990
8. ↑ Lanvin's Montana Wins Golden Thimble; Haute Couture Flourishes , apnewsarchive.com, January 31, 1991
9. ↑ Haute Couture - Propellant for Image , spiegel.de, February 3, 1992
10. ↑ Claude Montana n'a suscité qu'une seule offre de reprise , lesechos.fr, March 17, 1998
11. ↑ welt.de: Claude Montana: Did his wife die by suicide?