1000 Museums

Alix Grès, born Germaine Émilie Krebs, and also known as Madame Grès, was a 20th century French costume and fashion designer. Formally trained in sculpture and painting, Grès’s elegant garments often make use of dramatic and sculptural folds. These Greco-inspired gowns could take up to three hundred hours to complete and were deeply attentive to the female form – often being crafted on live models. Her fashion label, Madame Grès, was shut down by German troops in Nazi-occupied Paris, after her refusal to abandon the color palette of the French flag and embrace more dreary tones. Returning to Paris after French liberation in 1944, she continued to make garments until her passing in 1993.