France's fashion designer for petite women dies aged 105
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Monday, September 1, 2025


France's fashion designer for petite women dies aged 105
This file picture taken in October 1964 in an unknown location shows Madame Carven, founder of the Carven fashion house. Carven, a driving force in taking France's postwar fashion international, died on June 8, 2015 aged 105, a spokeswoman for her foundation told AFP. AFP PHOTO / STRINGER.



PARIS (AFP).- Marie-Louise Carven, a driving force in taking France's postwar fashion international, died on Monday aged 105, a spokeswoman for her foundation told AFP.

"She passed away this morning (Monday) at her home" in Paris, said Catherine Degueldre, secretary of the Grog-Carven Association. 

Carven, who opened her fashion house in the French capital in 1945, conducted a five-decade long career founded on the idea that style should belong to all, not just to tall, skinny models.

Born Carmen de Tommaso on August 31, 1909 in central western France, she renamed herself Marie-Louise Carven and designed clothes with a fresh and carefree style that were an immediate hit with actresses like Leslie Caron and Martine Carol and young girls around the world.

Overcame 'complex' for being short
Ignoring her mother's view that at 1.55 metres (five foot one inch) tall she would "never be elegant", she dropped early plans to become an architect or interior designer and set about creating clothes that flattered women like herself.

"I truly suffered from a complex.... I am 1.55 metres with curves, and during my youth, fashionable women were so tall, so willowy, so thin," she told AFP in a 2002 interview, a decade after retiring.

In 1945, at the age of 34, she opened her own haute couture fashion house on the Champs-Elysees, and called it Carven.

The Carven name was one she also chose for herself, reinventing her image for life in Paris.

"In the broiling Indian summers of those days Carven began to create the most adorable summer frocks. Paris began to talk, smart women everywhere went to Carven and emerged smarter still," Women's Illustrated said later.

Lauded in France 
In 2009, the French government paid tribute to her as "one of the most eminent creative forces in French and international fashion".

"Couture brought me happiness, they were the best years of my life," Carven recalled with a smile at a celebration the same year ahead of her 100th birthday.

Unlike other labels such as Christian Dior, Carven reached out to younger women with practical yet flattering and sexy designs.

She only gave up designing in 1993, in her 84th year, to concentrate on a passion for old furniture and antiques. 

Together with her husband, Rene Grog, she also built up a major collection of objets d'art which was later donated to the Louvre museum, where many of the items are now on permanent display.

Today her fashion house, after having gone through several other owners, has abandoned haute couture to focus on ready-to-wear. Its women's wear designers today are a pair in their 30s, Adrien Illaudable and Alexis Martial.




© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse










Today's News

June 9, 2015

Michael Craig-Martin curates explosion of colour in Summer Exhibition 2015

Artemis Gallery Ancient and Ethnographic Art Auction led by rarities from private collections

Retrospective exhibition of Jeff Koons' work opens at the Guggenheim in Bilbao

Gagosian to open new London gallery with exhibition of works by Cy Twombly

Belgium snubs France with euro coin marking Napoleon defeat at the Battle of Waterloo

Regaliceratops peterhewsi: Unusual horned dinosaur unearthed in Alberta, Canada

Dutch court rules Herge heirs don't have famous boy reporter Tintin monopoly

Key artifacts from ISIS-endangered Palmyra, Syria on view at the Freer and Sackler Galleries

New public exhibition of works by architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava opens on Park Avenue

Rijksmuseum presents new acquisition: Italian ensemble of 46 watercolours by J.A. Knip

Quinns' Auction Galleries' Waverly division turns to books, maps for June 11 sale

65 masterworks from the Vilcek Foundation Collection on view at the Phoenix Art Museum

New York City's Guernsey's to sell the finest collection of 2,000 patriotic posters

The Reading Public Museum presents dynamic exhibition of works by leading Italian Futurists

Records shattered at Heritage Auctions' Modern & Contemporary Art Sale

Native American art from the collection of Mario Luraschi on offer at Bonhams in fall 2015

France's fashion designer for petite women dies aged 105

Exhibition of new collection of furniture pieces by Zaha Hadid opens at David Gill Gallery

Fabergé-by-the-numbers: Fascinating facts from the new film 'Fabergé: A Life of its Own'

Impressionist & Modern Art Sales at Christie's include annual auction dedicated to Picasso ceramics

Exhibition of recent paintings by Piero Golia opens at Gagosian Gallery in Rome

Mexican Architect commissioned to create installation in V&A Garden as highlight of the Year of Mexico

Sotheby's to present dedicated classical Chinese paintings sales in Hong Kong

Rubin Museum hires Risha Lee as Curator, Exhibitions




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 




Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)


Editor: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful