MERCI MICHEL
04/27/2022 11:38:48
MERCI MICHEL
It is with great sadness that a few days ago I attended the funeral of the great fashion designer Michel Goma. Today I want to pay tribute to the man who had been my mentor since the beginnings of Cinabre and a very good friend.
Michel IS Haute Couture. Jean Patou, Balenciaga and other big names like Jean Paul Gaultier spent time in his ateliers. More than 10 years ago, when Cinabre was only in the project stage, he took me under his wing, training and advising me. Since then, he never stopped providing me with support and designing collections for Cinabre. What an incredible honor and opportunity.
Living in a ground floor flat in the heart of the 9th arrondissement, Michel had a private garden and small atelier out back where he worked some of his magic. Each moment spent in his company was unique and timeless - his art collections, energetic pencil strokes, ever-present Terre d'Hermès fragrance, classical music on the stereo, and his airs of a great-fashion-designer-diva sublimated with humor.
Michel taught me how to work with colors and materials, and always imparted sound advice for Cinabre’s artistic direction. We would start off by working and drawing and then he would regale me with stories about Haute Couture during the heyday of Patou and Saint Laurent. He shared the blank-page anxiety he had before starting new collections, his indulgences during evenings at the Palace, which often ended up with a 6:00 am steak at brasserie Au Pied de Cochon, before heading straight into work.
This newsletter is an opportunity to pay homage to Michel. Perhaps his name did not have the global renown of Saint Laurent or Lagerfeld, but he was a major player in that generation of creative geniuses and had an exceptional career.
UNE SUCCESS STORY À LA FRANÇAISE
Arriving in Paris from the small village of Moncrabeau, Lot-et-Garonne, 20-year-old Michel didn’t have two pennies to rub together. Fortunately, his talent was rapidly spotted by Christian Dior and Jeanne Lafaurie, for whom he worked for 7 years.
Michel Goma’s Haute Couture creations for his own fashion house
In 1958, he launched his own Maison de Haute Couture. His collections were sold all around the globe and his creations graced the prestigious covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and L'Officiel.
In 1963, he closed the doors of his Maison to become grand couturier for Jean Patou (replacing Karl Lagerfeld), where he worked for more than 10 years, and where a certain Jean-Paul Gaultier became his assistant. His creations were worn by Rose Kennedy, Princess Ashraf, and the Empress of Iran Farah Diba, to name but a few.
Michel Goma for Jean Patou
He then took charge of the prêt-à-porter collections at Carven and launched his first licenses in Japan. From 1987 to 1992, he spent the last few years of his career as head of ready-to-wear at Balenciaga.
Currently, some of his creations can be seen at the Palais Galliera in Paris or in the Michel Goma Museum in his hometown of Moncrabeau.
It was a privilege to be able to share so much time with such a genius.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Michel.