LONDON, England / The Times / December 31, 2008
By Charles Bremner in Paris
His and Her Tweeds by Ted Lapidus, August 1966 After the death of Yves Saint Laurent in June, France yesterday mourned another grand couturier who defined the look of the Swinging Sixties.
Ted Lapidus, who died at 79, was the man who took the unisex gear of flares and military jackets to the middle classes. He dressed the Beatles, Brigitte Bardot, the French pop singer Françoise Hardy and other idols of the era, and he was the first to put Twiggy in a suit and tie.
Lapidus, the first haute couture designer to mass-produce his brand name, was hailed by President Sarkozy as “the man who democratised French elegance and classicism . . . and made fashion accessible to men and women in the street”.
The President, whose wife Carla Bruni at times modelled Lapidus clothes, singled out the chic androgynous look, pioneered by Saint Laurent but popularised by Lapidus.
Russian-born French fashion designer Ted Lapidus, whose career soared in the 1960s and 1970s with the unisex and safari look. Photo: GETTY IMAGES Courtesy: Telegraph, LondonTed Lapidus, fashion designer, was born on June 23, 1929. He died in hospital of respiratory problems on December 29, 2008, aged 79
Lapidus, who died in Nice of respiratory failure after a long battle with leukaemia, was remembered more as a marketing visionary than a creative talent. After becoming the second women’s designer – after Pierre Cardin - to launch a men’s line, he appalled rivals in the exclusive industry by selling ready-to-wear fashion at relatively low prices.
“With the right workforce there is no reason that a factory cannot produce [the clothes] as well as a fashion house,” he said. In 1963, his first licensing agreement with a Paris department store caused a scandal. He broke ground in 1970 by going into scent with Parfums Ted Lapidus, in partnership with L’Oréal.
While the Lapidus label dropped haute couture and lost its chic image in France in the 1980s, it expanded around the world into watches, sunglasses, pens, luggage and other accessories. The label also supplied uniforms, including those of China Airlines and, according to one legend, President Hussein of Iraq.
Lapidus was also remembered for the legal battle that he waged against his son Olivier, 49, one of three children, to stop him using the family name as a brand. The pair were reconciled in 1989 and Olivier ran the company until 2000. “He was a great couturier,” his son said yesterday. “We were never really at war. We had problems stemming from the presence of two Lapidus in the world of fashion but we loved one another a lot.”
Yesterday, fashion experts paid tribute to the way that Lapidus shaped the spirit of Sixties and Seventies fashion. “Lapidus was my youth. Who didn’t wear Lapidus in those days?” remembered Viviane Blassel, a veteran commentator for TF1 television.
Some said that Edmond “Ted” Lapidus, the son of an immigrant Russian tailor, had never been given the credit that he was due. Rose Torrente-Mett, his sister and head of the Torrente fashion house, said: “Ted was the first couturier of la nouvelle vague. The whole world knew it.”
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
