Didier Grumbach, the unknown French businessman who invented 'prêt-à-porter': "A young creator should not parade if he does not have a client agenda"
There is a man in fashion who did it all. Literally. The standardization of prêt-à-porter, the licensing system (perfumes, sunglasses and other accessible consumer items), the recent opening of highly elitist haute couture or the creation of structures that converge design and industry are due to one person: Didier Grumbach (Paris, 84 years old). His name may not be known to the general public, but his business ideas gave birth to, among other milestones, Angel, Thierry Mugler's best-selling perfume; Rive Gauche, Yves Saint Laurent's most affordable line; or Créateurs & Industriels, an institution that put designers and managers in contact and that was the seed of the current system of luxury holding companies led by Kering and LVMH. Now the Superflua publishing house has just published its Memorias de la moda in Spanish, a review of its more than 50 years in the industry that is also, in some way, a story of how and why fashion is what it is today.
Grumbach was only 24 years old when he took over C. Mendès, the clothing workshop that his grandfather set up and which made mid-priced garments for a handful of French boutiques. The work system had not changed in 50 years. Until Grumbach decided to offer his services to the haute couture houses of the moment (Carven, Philippe Venet or Antonio Castillo, among others). In 1967, five years after taking command of the factory, he was already mass-producing garments for Lanvin, Givenchy or Chanel and became a partner in Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, the first signature line designed for mass production. Prêt-a-porter as we know it today was born. “If I think about it in perspective, I think that of all my achievements the most influential was creating a subsidiary distribution company in New York, Paris Collections Inc.”, Grumbach tells this newspaper, “We popularized in the United States brands as disparate as Valentino, Givenchy, Jean Charles de Castelbajac or Issey Miyake. We produced most of it in a factory in Angers, in the west of France. That's how from haute couture to pret-à-porter definitively, and this business system opened the door to younger designers”, he adds.
With the advent of mass production came the reign of branding. Fashion firms could no longer bet everything on the majesty of the handmade; Quite the contrary, they needed to communicate something intangible, an identity as abstract as it was attractive that would allow them to sell their products. In 1974, Grumbach created the Createurs & Industriels association, an organization that put designers in contact with managers to develop and make this new brand idea prosper. It was chaired by the interior designer Andrée Putnam. "Over time I realized that it was a too early idea that was not managed in the right way, but I do not regret it," she confesses.
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It was through this initiative that Grumbach met a young Thierry Mugler. She bet so much on him that in 1975 she created a company with him, Triumvirat Company. Together they turned the concept of a fashion show, previously linked to the privacy of haute couture salons, into a public event and an entertainment tool close to a rock concert. "Without the staging, Thierry would not have been successful," recalls Grumbach. “In 1984 we decided to show the collection in front of 6,000 people who paid their admission, and that changed the idea of what a catwalk was. Everyone who came after continued with this show idea. They also created a milestone in perfumery, Angel, in 1992, a fragrance so emblematic that it ended up engulfing the designer; the cosmetics company Clarins ended up buying the brand from Grumbach in 1994. “I think that both Saint Laurent and Mugler [the two brands that the businessman directed] are today creating spectacular products and images that ensure their visibility. And they have excellent fragrances, which, after all, is what ensures their survival: haute couture and perfume,” he says.
But fashion is not what it used to be, even for Grumbach. He, who was president of the French Couture Chamber of Commerce until 2014, believes that the parade is no longer a necessary tool. "It's no longer an obligation," he says. “Dior would not have succeeded with the New Look without a show, Thierry would not have made a career without the show. But a current young creator should not parade if he does not already have an agenda of tied clients. Today the catwalk is the end, not the beginning”.
He also does not believe that brand management should be what it was 10 or 20 years ago: “They are becoming more diversified. They are almost social agents, so they should be concerned about the same thing that society is concerned about: the environment, technology, diversity... In this sense, training is becoming fundamental. I am glad that the Chamber of Commerce of Sewing has signed agreements with the French Institute of Fashion. Because nowadays creativity is not something specific to garments, it has to influence all business aspects, from marketing to management”, he argues. And he offers advice for successful emerging brands: “Belonging to Kering and LVMH [the two conglomerates that own two-thirds of the renowned luxury firms] is no longer an obligation to succeed. For a time it was thought that without them there would be no real development. But there is the internet. The Internet facilitates independence.”
