Marie-Jacques Perrier

Marie-Jacques Perrier
Born	Marie-Jacques Renée Perrier November 22, 1924 (1924-11-22) (age 86) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Singer, Fashion journalist, Author, Art Collector
Years active	1934–present
Religion	Roman Catholic
Children	1 daughter

Marie-Jacques Renée “Jacotte” Perrier (born 22 November 1924) is a French singer, fashion journalist, author and art collector. She is best known for her musical collaborations with the Quintette du Hot Club de France and her fashion reporting for Fairchild Publications. She is the daughter of Robert Perrier, musical composer and founder of the haute couture supplier Société de Textiles Robert Perrier. She remains one of the few living figures of Continental jazz and one of the last surviving fashion journalists of 1950s haute couture.

Early life and singing career

Born in the Montmartre district of Paris in 1924, Marie-Jacques Perrier was raised among the regulars of her parents’ R-vingt-six (R-26), the informal musical gathering based in the family’s apartment and frequented by artists such as Josephine Baker, Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Henri Salvador, Jean Tranchant and Mary Lou Williams.^[1] Perrier began her singing career at the age of ten using the stage name Jacotte Perrier, performing in variety theaters and on French radio.^[2] She began her recording career with Pathé Records in 1937, producing singles with Reinhardt and his Quintette du Hot Club de France including the series Chansons de Jacotte, written by Jean Tranchant, and ‘Ric et Pussy’, written by Perrier’s parents.^[3]

Perrier was equally introduced into the milieu of her father’s haute couture business, affording her a visit in 1944 with the then-destitute and moribund Paul Poiret.

After graduating from the École du Louvre in 1944, Perrier was variously employed by couturière Marie-Louise Bruyère, film producer Fred Orain, the Embassy of Pakistan in France and Panair do Brasil (Pan American Airways).

Perrier’s musical collaborations with Stéphane Grappelli continued until 1950, recording music written by Perrier’s parents such as the single ‘La pluie sur le toit’.

Fashion journalism career

Perrier (center) at a dinner for Charles Jourdan. Plaza Athénée 1962.

Leveraging her father’s contacts within the fashion industry, Marie-Jacques Perrier became employed in 1955 as an English-language journalist for the Paris office of Fairchild Publications, partnering her with the budding illustrator Kenneth Paul Block. Her contributions from Paris, London and New York City to the company’s Women's Wear Daily and the Daily News Record soon became extremely popular, earning Perrier’s reputation as one of Fairchild’s most distinguished journalists of haute couture. Perrier earned wide acclaim for her interviews with many of the decade’s most fashionable women, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Estée Lauder, Princess Margaret and Farah Diba Pahlavi. An interview with Maria Callas first quoted the singer’s famous assertion, “Paris dicte la mode au monde entier" (“Paris dictates fashion to the whole world”).^[4]

Through the course of her seven years with Fairchild Publications, Perrier interviewed most of the major Paris-based fashion designers, including Pierre Balmain, Hubert de Givenchy, Nina Ricci and Elsa Schiaparelli. She was also one of the first to feature interviews with many future luminaries, among them James Galanos, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro. Perrier was a member of the Fashion Group Paris alongside colleagues Eugenia Sheppard and Diana Vreeland. Throughout Perrier’s career, she maintained a close professional relationship with designers such as Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges and Givenchy, contacts that were much in demand by Perrier’s publishers.^[5]

In 1962, Fairchild Publications underwent a major restructuring resulting in the departure of most of the Paris office’s journalists, Perrier included. Perrier then moved to Los Angeles to work as a foreign correspondent and freelance for the Hollywood Reporter, though the birth of her daughter encouraged Perrier to return to Europe. Later writing for a variety of publications in Paris, London, Milan, Sydney and Buenos Aires, she continued to report on haute couture shows, interviewing a new generation of then up-and-coming designers including Calvin Klein, Thierry Mugler, Oscar de la Renta and Kenzo Takada.

Perrier’s career as a fashion journalist is remarkable in that it has spanned essentially three distinct eras of haute couture, from that of Schiaparelli to Saint Laurent to Mugler. She has contributed reporting to a total of eighty-seven publications worldwide, in addition to co-authoring numerous books on the subject of fashion.

Later life

Now approaching her late eighties, Marie-Jacques Perrier continues to work as a reporter from Paris while managing the archives of both her parents’ music and her father’s Société de Textiles Robert Perrier.^[6]

Perrier was the inheritor of her father’s art collection, including numerous paintings by Sonia Delaunay. To this she added many seminal works of abstractionism, surrealism and minimalism, most notably favoring Yves Klein. The collection was eventually dispersed by auction and donation.^[7]

She has been the subject of several television documentaries for History and ITV.^[8]

In 2004, Perrier renewed her singing career to record an anthology of her parents’ music, Echos du R. 26.

Perrier maintains strong connections with Paris’ international student community, frequently receiving students at her home. She also organizes student dialogues with members of the French leadership, including a recent student conference with politician Alain Juppé.^[9]

Partial discography

• La Ferme enchantée (incl. ‘Le Coq’, ‘Le Petit cheval’) - 1937
• Chansons de Jacotte (incl. ‘Les salades de l'oncle François’) - 1938
• Ric et Pussy - 1938
• La pluie sur le toit - 1950
• Tu m’as dit – 1983
• Les cinglés du Music Hall – 1995
• Intégrale Django Reinhardt - 1999
• Echos du R. 26 - 2004
• Chansons d’enfance - 2007
• Soirées à Montmartre – 2007
• Django et la chanson - 2008

See also

• 1945–1960 in fashion
• 1960s in fashion
• 1970s in fashion
• Continental jazz
• Django Reinhardt
• Eugenia Sheppard
• Fairchild Fashion Group
• Musée de la Mode et du Textile
• Musée Galliera
• Petit Mirsha
• R-vingt-six (R 26)
• Société de Textiles Robert Perrier
• Women's Wear Daily

References

1. ^ Moulin, Matthieu (2007). Soirées à Montmartre (CD liner notes). Paris: Marianne Melodie.
2. ^ Pissard, Jean-François. Le Livre des héros. Poitiers: Le Pictavien, 2007. Print.
3. ^ Nevers, David. Intégrale Django Reinhardt (CD liner notes). Paris: Frémeaux & Associés
4. ^ Perrier, Marie-Jacques. “'Grande nuit de l’Opéra.” Women's Wear Daily. New York. 20 December 1958.
5. ^ Cheverny. Paris: Philippe Rouillac, 2001. Print.
6. ^ Nevers, Daniel. Intégrale Django Reinhardt Vol 11: Swing 42 (CD liner notes). Paris: Frémeaux & Associés
7. ^ Moonan, Wendy. "ANTIQUES; Fabrics for Stars Are Themselves The Stars of a Sale." New York Times 25 May 2001, Arts sec. Print.
8. ^ Outbreak 1939. Dir. Martina Hall. History, 2009.
9. ^ Clary, Michèle. “Marie-Jacques Perrier; Le Village de Montmartre, C’est Vous.” Paris Montmartre. 29 June 2011. Print.

External links

‘La pluie sur le toit’ - Marie-Jacques Perrier: YouTube

Persondata
Name	Marie-Jacques Renée Perrier
Alternative names	Jacotte Perrier
Short description	Fashion journalist and singer
Date of birth	22 November 1924
Place of birth	Paris, France
Date of death
Place of death