French fashion designer Claude Montana, who has died aged 74, probably defined the exaggerated silhouettes that characterized flamboyantly dressed women of the 1980s, for whom he was known as the “Shoulder Pad King”.
At first, Montana’s aggressive silhouettes, heavily influenced by constructivism, shocked critics and buyers. Her first collection, made almost entirely of leather in 1979, sparked a barrage of abuse. Critics described it as “ostentatious, trashy and degrading to women” and “whore fashion”. It was accused of being misogynistic and promoting a “neo-Nazi” aesthetic; but in reality his aggressively sexual leather-zipped and studded appearance owed more to the gay subculture of which he was an active member than to any political movement.
But his sharp tailoring, mastery of leather and masterful use of color meant that by the mid-1980s Montana’s catwalk shows – with their haughty Amazonian models – had become the hottest ticket in town. What Montana did one season, others copied the next. Cher, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Grace Jones, Elizabeth Taylor and Sally Field wore Claude Montana, as did Don Johnson, Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke.
By the late 1980s, his fashion empire included men’s and women’s ready-to-wear; It licensed products such as scarves, ties, glasses and the best-selling perfume Montana Pour Femme.
Then things started to go terribly wrong. In 1989, he turned down the head designer job at Christian Dior because he found it too demanding. “I need space,” he told The Washington Post. “I don’t want to have this much money and go to a mental hospital.” The job went to Gianfranco Ferre. Later that year, the ailing house of Lanvin hired Montana to produce its haute couture collection. Montana won couture’s highest prize, the Golden Thimble, two seasons in a row, but Lanvin was losing too much money from couture and did not renew her contract.
Even by fashion industry standards, his dismissal was brutal. A few hours after showing off her January collection in 1991, her employer called the press to announce that Montana was up for sale. The highly sensitive designer was devastated.
Severely injured, he retreated into the ready-to-wear business and continued producing leather bomber jackets and zip-up dresses. However, among the grunge, forlorn and romantic looks that monopolized the catwalks in the early 90s, their designs looked old-fashioned. Her futuristic, all-white autumn womenswear collection in 1995 garnered praise, with Women’s Wear Daily concluding that “nobody can beat Montana for precision tailoring”, but it wasn’t enough to stem the decline in sales.
Meanwhile, his personal life fell into disarray. In 1993, after being dumped by her long-term boyfriend, Montana shocked her friends by marrying androgynous catwalk muse Wallis Franken. In a move widely seen as a cynical move to shore up a floundering career, he staged the wedding in July, in the middle of Paris couture week, with the bride’s white satin cowboy jacket worn over a tunic and trousers contrasting with the groom’s buckskin suit.
Three years later, Madame Montana committed suicide by jumping headfirst from the kitchen window of their apartment in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, while her husband slept in their bedroom. Her jewelry was neatly placed on the kitchen table. Friends of the model and many in the industry indirectly blamed Montana. Wallis did not have to put up with her husband’s addiction to the gay club scene and his possessiveness towards her, and she allegedly began to mock him, calling him “old and ugly”.
The following year, Montana filed for bankruptcy.
According to various normally reliable sources, Claude Montana was born in Paris on June 29, 1949, to a German mother and Catalan father; however, some sources claim that he was born two years earlier, in 1947. to persuade him to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, a scientist doing chemical research. “I had to leave home,” he recalled.
He and a friend set out for England with no job prospects and no money. “We remembered a Mexican recipe for making bracelets from toilet paper, glue and rhinestones,” she recalled. They would bake papier-mâché jewelry in the oven at night and sell it at street stalls during the day. In 1971, her designs were featured in British Vogue magazine, and she was able to support herself for another six months until she was asked to leave the country because she did not have a work permit.
Montana returned to Paris but failed to attract interest in her jewelry designs. Instead he tried to find odd jobs as an extra in opera and movies. The openly gay man wore a black leather outfit, a Hitler mustache and hair dyed orange, and was rarely seen without a cigarette.
Eventually, a friend who made ballet costumes suggested she go into fashion, and she found a job as a design assistant at a leather company called MacDouglas, taking over the business when the designer left. He held his first fashion show in 1976. “Next season everything will be on the biggest shoulders I can do,” she told Women’s Wear Daily in 1978. Retailers were then so big that dresses kept falling off the hangers. She founded her own brand in 1979.
From the beginning, Montana’s sexuality influenced her approach to design. A tireless clubber, he always appeared at Club Sept, a Parisian nightclub, leading a group of leather-clad young men. Therefore, it was not surprising that women’s clothing referred to the world he knew so well. She was also fond of uniforms, producing variations of the clothing worn by airmen, sailors, factory workers and even members of the French Academy.
Over the years, Montana has reinforced his image as a tortured perfectionist. He was known to stay up all night before a performance and throw tantrums at the slightest slight. He tended to stay away from large social gatherings, even when he was the guest of honor. While she was one of five designers whose work was featured at a Tokyo fashion week, she declined an invitation to a gala dinner and was instead spotted at a nightclub where she stayed until 6am. She was not universally popular.
In 1998, a French investor group led by a former executive of the Nina Ricci perfume house took over Montana’s fashion business for about $821,000. Ironically, part of the deal required Montana to give up the rights to his name, something he had fought so fiercely for in the past. However, the designer will retain design rights for the house for another ten years.
Montana seemed happy with this arrangement and recovered quickly once he was freed from the pressures of running a business. In 1999, she introduced Montana Blu, an affordable clothing line for young, hippie women, which was successful enough to produce her own fragrance. Later, as fashion turned to harsher, sculptural styles, Montana inspired a new generation of designers, including Alexander McQueen.
Claude Montana was born on June 29, 1949, his death was announced on February 23, 2024