Louis Feraud has been designing elegant couture for men and women for over 35 years. The name Feraud may not echo as loudly as Chanel or encompass as much international territory and product as Cardin, but Monsieur Feraud likes it that way. The House of Louis Feraud is very much French, very exclusive and compared to other fashion empires, very small, but this makes it easier for this former artist to embrace two of his biggest loves: beautiful clothes and beautiful women. He talks with Vive La Vie about designing the former and his universal admiration for the latter.

VIVE: What originally motivated you to become involved with fashion and how did you go about establishing yourself?

FERAUD: I began working in this profession 35 years ago in the South of France basically because I loved women and I still love them. It was a desperate way to meet with them: to get in touch with them through fashion. The area in which I was born was notable for all the great painters, the Impressionists like Cezanne lived in Aix-en-Provence and surrounding areas. As a result, each young man who had an eye for design became a painter so originally, I followed the regional tradition. Amongst the people to whom I sold paintings was a man who owned a textile factory with whose family I became friendly, so when I realised that my paintings would never hang in the Louvre I decided to direct my interests towards another sort of design, and fashion, using these colourful materials seemed very attractive although at this stage I continued to paint. My first collection was Mediterranean inspired and I had a little success through the movie stars of the time like Brigitte Bardot who frequently came to nice, Cannes and the Cote D'Azur, and began to wear my clothes. Then in 1955-6, I created a collection in black and they all loved it, but I didn't realise how popular it had been until I made a trip to the Casino in Monte Carlo. As I was looking around the room, I realised that half the women there were wearing my clothes. It was an enormous sense of satisfaction for me and I decided then that my career as an artist was well and truly over and that I had to do something involved with industry. So I spent a considerable amount of time in Japan and New York learning about the industrial side of fashion.