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Adeline Andre

"The allure is in the cut...what counts is the delayed reaction."

Adeline Andre learned the fine art of the cut of the fabric during a 2 year apprenticeship at the House of Christian Dior, but Andre's designs stand out as she constructs her fabulously cut garments from sensuous, bias-cut fabrics in lively and unexpectedly bright hues. When one wears an Andre garment, there is definitely much for the viewers eyes to linger over.

Andre is most famous for her fashion innovation of the witty "three sleeve hole" which she registered both at the French National Intellectual Property Institute and the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. During the late 1980s when many fashion houses were focused on shoulder pads and stretch, Andre was presenting her lines of studied unstructured and fluid lines. Most are aware of her contribution of the three sleeve hole; however, few realize that she is also responsible for the seminal rolled hem seen on many knits.

Although Parisian, she has Scottish roots and is the great-grand-daugther of the constructor of the first railway of Egypt which links up Cairo to Luxor. She was born in Bangui, French Equatorial Africa, where her family mined gold and diamonds. She departed for London intending to be a fashion photograher. After returning to Paris and graduating from the "Ecole de la Chanbre Syndicale de la Couture Parisieene", she took fine art lessons from Salvador Dali, followed by the stint at Christian Dior. While at Dior, she met Steven Dohar, an architect from Hungary, and with the financial help of a friend, they began the Adeline Andre Line.

Andre's career has been marked with many successes, perhaps the most notable is that her dress #18 from her Fall-Winter 97/98 Couture collection was aquired by the French government as a work of art -- the first such acquisition of a dress designed and produced by a living couturier.


Life facts: Adeline Andre values the witty and the unexpected -- values seen not only in the design of her clothing but also the design of her shows. In the 1980s, Andre held her shows in locations that had never before hosted a show, including the French conference center where the Treaty of Paris (which ended the Vietnam war) was signed. She also fostered a more relaxed and less staged show and had the models walk about and mingle with attendees. Andre tends to the pragmatic about her chosen industry and is more concerned with making a niche than in the general climate of fashion.

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