The Flickr Jacquesheim Image Generatr

Photographer unknown

Jacky Mazel in Jacques Heim

Model in Jacques Heim

Simone d'Aillencourt

A 1959 cocktail dress by Jacques Heim (left), a 1955 women's suit by Jean Patou (middle), and a 1959 women's coat sold by the Higbee Company.

Jacques Heim was born 8 May 1899 in Paris to Isidore and Jeanne Heim. He began working in his parents' fur shop about 1920, and took over the business in 1923. Within a few years, he began designing women's coats and dresses with Sonia Delaunay. The business became the House of Heim in 1930. From the beginning, Heim also made ready-to-war and junior miss (teenage) clothing. An active member of the French Resistance, he survived World War II by having a gentile take over his fashion house. Heim had pioneered the bikini in 1932, but it never caught on and he missed out on the bikini craze of the 1950s. He died on 8 January 1967.

Jean Patou (1880-1936) was born in Normandy, France, into a family of tanners and furriers. He worked as an apprentice for his uncle, gaining knowledge about how fur was tanned, worked, shaved, and modified to make fine clothing. He moved to Paris in 1910, and in 1912 opened a small dressmaking shop ("Maison Parry"). Immediately popular, his work was interrupted by World War I when he was drafted into the French Army. Reopening his shop in 1919, he rejected the then-popular flapper look. Instead, he focused on long skirts, sportswear, and cardigans. He is considered the inventor of knitted swimwear, the tennis skirt, and the designer tie. In 1925, Patou began making perfume and expanded into suntan lotion in 1928. His fashion business collapsed during the Great Depression, but he survived by making perfume. After Patou's death, the House of Patou was run by his sister. The House of Patou was purchased by Proctor & Gamble in 2001, and sold to Designer Parfums Ltd in 2011.

Higbee's was a deaprtment store based in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Along with Halle's, Higbee's was one of the two largest luxury department stores in Northeast Ohio. Founded by Edwin Converse Higbee and John G. Hower on September 10, 1860, as a dry goods concern, it was renamed The Higbee Co. in 1902 after the death of Hower. It was acquired by the Van Sweringen brothers in 1929, but went bankrupt in 1935 when the Van Sweringen empire collapsed in the Great Depression. Reorganized by store executives Charles P. Bradley and John Murphy, the company flourished until it was sold in 1984. The new owner, Industrial Equity Ltd, sold it three years later to Dillard's. All Higbee's stores were rebranded as Dillard's in 1992.

Evening gown by Jacques Heim

Cocktail gown by Jacques Heim

Summer day gown by Heim

Jacques Heim