Louis Féraud

Who was Louis Féraud?

Louis Féraud was a French fashion designer and artist.

In 1950, Louis Féraud created his first "Maison de Couture" in Cannes and by 1955 had established a couture house in Paris on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré.

From the mid-1950s he was dressing the Parisian elite and designed the wardrobe of Brigitte Bardot for many of her movies. It wasn't however until 1958 that he presented his first haute couture collection in Paris.

In the early 1960s Louis Féraud hired the designers Jean-Louis Scherrer, Margit Brandt and Per Spook.

In 1970, he signed a contract with Fink for a ladies' prêt-à-porter collection. The year 1978 was an excellent one for Féraud: he won the "Golden Thimble Award" for his Spring/Summer 1978 Haute Couture Collection. He went on to claim this accolade again in 1984.

Adding to his growing collection of honours Louis Féraud was elected Prince de l'Art de Vivre in 1991. In 1995 he was decorated Officier de la Légion d'honneur, by the French President. His daughter Kiki signed her first Haute Couture collection in with Féraud in 1996. The head Haute Couture designer throughout the 70s,80s, 90s remained the Icelandic designer Helga Bjornsson, known for her theatrical and innovative style. In September 1999 the Dutch group Secon acquired Féraud. He died that December, aged 79 after a long and severe battle with Alzheimer's.