Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff

Doucet

Also known as: Doucet, Maison Doucet, Jacques Doucet

People · Mentioned
Show in diary 26 mentions
Colour caricature of the couturier Jacques Doucet by Cappiello
Jacques Doucet (1853-1929), caricature by Leonetto Cappiello, 1903 (also printed in Femina, Les Célébrités de la Mode) Leonetto Cappiello, 1903, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Doucet, the couturier

«Doucet» in Marie's text is the Parisian dress-making house of Jacques Doucet, where she had her clothes made (1875-1883). The painter Lucien Doucet, whom she mentions in 1880 and 1883, is a different person with his own entry: #Lucien Doucet.

Jacques Doucet, couturier (1853-1929)

Jacques Doucet was born in Paris on 19 February 1853 and died at Neuilly-sur-Seine on 30 October 1929. His family business at 21 rue de la Paix, founded in the early nineteenth century (sources give 1816 or the 1820s), was split by the early 1860s between his mother Mathilde's lace and lingerie shop and his father Édouard's shirt shop. Jacques began working in it about 1875 and made it one of the first haute couture houses of Paris; Réjane, Sarah Bernhardt, Liane de Pougy and La Belle Otero were clients, and Paul Poiret and Madeleine Vionnet were trained there. He was also a major collector and patron (sale of much of his eighteenth-century collection in June 1912). (Fr. Wikipedia, "Jacques Doucet (couturier)"; Mimi Matthews / "The House of Doucet (1816-1928)", https://mimicofmodes.com/2014/10/15/the-house-of-doucet-1816-1928/; V&A Museum collection notes.)

Marie and the house of Doucet

The diary does not say whether Marie dealt with Jacques himself; "Doucet" is the shop. Her references run from linen (1875) to dresses (1878-1883), when Doucet, Worth and Laferrière are her three couturiers; in 1879 she says she has left "Worth et Laferrière" for "Doucet et Savarre", and that dressing at the ordinary places makes her "embourgeoisée".
  • 5 and 11 August 1875 (038.0148, 038.0269). Doucet makes her "du linge de la dernière élégance" and a tulle veil that costs a hundred francs: "il est vrai que ce voile est divin." (Doucet's was then the lingerie shop of Mme Doucet, which her son Jacques was beginning to turn into a couture house.)
  • 3 October 1877 (075.0128). In half an hour Doucet makes her "un délicieux petit scapulaire bleu" on the day she starts at Julian's.
  • 9 October 1878 (082.0577). "Felix et Doucet me feront les choses les plus ravissantes." The English footnote there already names Jacques Doucet.
  • 31 October 1878 (083.0081). They pass "la boutique de Doucet" in a carriage.
  • 26-27 November 1878 (083.0272-0279). While Marie is trying on a dress, Mme de Cassagnac arrives to collect her otter coat; she had her whole trousseau at Doucet's for 11,000 francs. Marie finds it "ennuyeux d'entendre annoncer Mme de Cassagnac quand on essaye une robe".
  • 19 August 1879 (086.0102). The "Worth et Laferrière" refrain above.
  • 15 October 1880 (090.0114). She complains that Doucet and others have copied the crossed draperies and pointed sash she has worn for two years.
  • 21 March 1881 (091.0335, 091.0337). Doucet makes her a Directoire or Consulat costume in white crêpe de Chine for M. de Dalmas's fancy-dress ball.
  • 27 September 1881 (093.0146). Her white Louis XV muslin dress at the seaside is so admired that everyone asks Rosalie for the dressmaker's address: "donc gloire à Doucet". The English footnote identifies him.
  • 5 November 1881 (093.0337). "Je me suis achetée un chapeau et vu Doucet."
  • 13 January 1882 (094.0167). A dress made "par Doucet et moi de compagnie", a near copy of Greuze's La Cruche cassée, with a garland of Bengal roses.
  • 20 April - 20 June 1882 (094.0421, 095.0029, 095.0147, 095.0199). Fittings. On 7 May she states her dress bill: "peut-être huit mille francs par an, pas plus chez Doucet", where women spending fifty or sixty thousand dress like the cocottes. On 20 June she says she wanted to paint "le Salon d'essayage chez Doucet" but turned to a different subject (Les Saintes Femmes).
  • 15 February and 22 May 1883 (098.0341, 099.0528). Conferences with "M. Jean" at Worth's and Doucet's, three dresses ordered; a letter from Doucet about a bodice.
  • 1 May 1883 (099.0305). "Chez Doucet et Gelot pour des chapeaux", with Gervex, Julian and Carrier-Belleuse.
  • 5 November 1883 (102.0133). Her claim: after years of working "pendant des heures chez Laferrière, Worth ou Doucet", draperies, jabots and negligent sashes came into fashion, and "les façons les plus courues chez Doucet sont de mon invention. Et rien de cela ne porte mon nom."

Related entries

Sources

Wikipédia FR "Jacques Doucet (couturier)"; Mimi Matthews, "The House of Doucet (1816-1928)"; Wikimedia Commons (Cappiello caricature 1903). Diary paragraphs as cited.

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