He Dressed the World's Chicest Women

New York Times

29-01-2025

For 50 years, Didier Ludot's vintage couture boutique at the Palais-Royal in Paris was a time machine to a more fashionably elegant era. Tourists and Parisians would stroll along the arcades that frame the 17th-century residential square and park, pause in front of the Ludot vitrines and marvel at the haute couture dresses, suits and gowns by such revered midcentury designers as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior.
Sometimes, they'd enter and buy a piece, or two or three. Sometimes, they simply wanted to know about the looks on display, and Mr. Ludot would recount delightful stories about their provenance.
Last fall, Mr. Ludot quietly closed his shop, and on Jan. 30., the last 380 pieces from his inventory will be sold by the Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house, in a sale titled 'The Last Passage.' Earlier this month, he sat in his nearly empty boutique for an exit interview — edited here for length and clarity — and offered more tales about the clothes. He had thoughts, too, on the state of fashion today. Piquant thoughts.
Why are you shutting down your business and leaving fashion?
First, because I am at the age to stop. But also because I no longer have the same rapport with customers. There is no culture left in fashion. We were still selling well — that wasn't the issue at all. It's just not as pleasurable as it was before.
Why not?
There used to be an exchange of ideas with people who loved couture. They would come into the store and maybe not buy anything, but we always talked, which I loved.
Once, I was putting a fuchsia and navy Chanel suit in the window. It was a curious suit. Instead of the usual trim, Mademoiselle Chanel had put little geometric chickens in navy blue organdy. I heard two small, older women chatting — very ordinary sorts. And they said, 'Oh, how she was such a pain over that little suit, the old bat.'
I said, 'You worked for Chanel?!' 'Yes,' they told me, 'and that suit was an absolute nightmare for us to make because Mademoiselle Chanel wanted the hens to all be the same size.'
We regularly had Monsieur Jean-Pierre from Saint Laurent [Jean-Pierre Derbord, the director of tailoring] come by and look at the windows. I loved Saint Laurent and never had a window without one of his pieces in it. He would say: 'I remember that one. It was for Madame So-and-So, and she had one shoulder higher than the other, so it was complicated to get her jackets just right.' That was marvelous.
And now?
Now, young people would come in and say, 'Do you have Balenciaga?' and I'd say, 'Yes, I have Cristóbal Balenciaga.' And they'd say, 'No, the sweatshirt by Demna that reads 'Balenciaga' in big letters across the front.'
You have long been a favorite destination for American customers.
The American clientele is terrific. The older they get, the more I love them. They are so thin, and redone — they fit in all my dresses, and they understand quality.
I had an American client from Connecticut named Sarah Wolfe, who only bought from here. We'll have 35 of her dresses in the sale, like the pink one-shoulder Dior gown by Marc Bohan. Sarah is 75 now, and she doesn't have the same life as she did when she bought and wore those dresses. So we're doing a little corner dedicated to her and them.
American celebrities particularly liked to come here.
Julia Roberts came in during the haute couture shows four or five years ago. It was very cold, and she'd only packed summer clothes, so she wanted a coat. A proper coat. And she found a Balenciaga in a harlequin pattern of orange and yellow. She bought it and walked out, and her husband was waiting for her in the garden. She was so happy, and he was, too. I adore when a woman leaves with the item on and the husband loves what she buys.
And Nicole Kidman. She has shopped here since her time with Tom Cruise. When she was in Paris for the Balenciaga show a couple of years ago, she spent four hours in the boutique with her husband, Keith Urban. He said: 'Try that one again.' 'Try this one.' 'Take that one, it suits you.' He understood how she dressed — it was great.
She bought Saint Laurent dresses, very short. I said to her husband, 'I'm going to hire you as a sales assistant.'
How would you get stock for the store?
Before, I would go to people's homes. It was always so interesting to enter their private universe and see what treasures they had. I remember a woman in the Seventh Arrondissement who lived in a little studio and had no money at all. I arrived, and there on the sofa were evening gowns by Dior, Jacques Fath.
She said: 'My husband was a diplomat. That was with Konrad Adenauer. That was with John Kennedy. That was with Charles de Gaulle.' It was beautiful because she relived these moments in her life.
There was one woman who came in and said, 'Do you buy haute couture?' And I said, 'Yes, Madame.' And she said: 'My collection is rather special. Everything is beige. Well, no, there's a bit of variety. I have things from ivory to caramel.'
So we fixed a date, and she sent her chauffeur in a navy blue Jaguar with a beige interior to fetch me. We went to her home in Le Vésinet, a wealthy suburb of Paris. The gate read 'Le Grand Lac,' so I thought, 'OK, we're in good hands here.' She welcomed me and showed me around a bit. 'This is the dance floor for the garden parties,' and so on. Then she said, 'Now let's go up to my closet.'
It was a 350-square-meter [3,800-square-foot] walk-in, only Chanel and Pierre Balmain, from the end of 1950s to 1975, and everything was beige. She pulled out two garments, an almond green suit and a dove gray coat, and said, 'You see, dear sir, these both come from Balmain, and the two greatest errors of my life is that I did not buy them in beige.'
She bought everything in double. 'If one gets stained, I have a backup,' she said. We filled three trucks with her beige clothes. There were so many! Like 400 or 500 pieces. Some are in the sale. I called a friend who worked for Balmain to ask about her. 'Well, yes, of course, we all know Madame Beige.'
And now?
Now, women arrive with a suitcase of clothes they want to sell. A few years ago, a woman walked in with an IKEA bag. 'We had a lot that we threw away,' she said, 'but my cousin said we keep these two.' They were by Saint Laurent for Dior, both from 1959. One was a black silk chiffon and velvet cocktail dress called Coquine, and the other was a short black lace evening dress called Sévillane. They are in the sale.
Would celebrities come to you discreetly to sell their clothes?
Catherine Deneuve. Some of her pieces are in the sale, but she doesn't want us to say they are hers, so we will say, 'Provenance: The greatest French actress.' Everyone will know it's her, but I will have not said so.
What has been the best-selling brand consistently?
Chanel. I have clients who will be let down by my closing, and those are my Chinese clients. They are young, thin, beautiful businesswomen. They want to attend their meetings and conferences dressed in Chanel, and they fear that their competitors might choose the same dress or suit from the new collection, so they come here and buy vintage. Then no one else will have the same look.
And for evening wear, Saint Laurent, from end of 1970s to 1995. There will be 80 or 85 pieces of Saint Laurent in the sale. A woman who wears Saint Laurent will never be tempted by Chanel. Absolutely not.
Why didn't you sell the business?
We tried. I would have loved to sell my stock, the boutique, everything to someone, but there was no one.
Any closing thoughts?
I'm pleased that I pursued this métier. It preserved beauty, and it allowed a new generation to learn about and experience haute couture. So, all in all, I did well.