15-05-2025
Everything You Need to Know About Félix, the Couturier Who Is Believed to Have Designed Madame X's Dress
In Deborah Davis's 2003 book Strapless (a fascinating read), the author definitively attributes it to Maison Félix. The Metropolitan Museum's Elizabeth L. Block, who has written extensively about the house, is slightly more cautious, writing that 'The draw of Félix for women who traveled in artistic circles supports the view that Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau wears a Félix dress in John Singer Sargent's famous painting of 1883–84, Madame X.' There is a contemporary report that links Gautreau to Maison Felix, renowned for its attenuated silhouettes.
Although a competitor with the House of Worth—which is now being celebrated with an exhibition in Paris—Maison Feéix has been relegated to the sidelines of fashion history, this despite the house being called 'a shrine' when it closed in 1901. Although Vogue was founded eight years after Madame X made her debut, it's there I started digging deeper. A Félix dress was featured in the magazine's first issue, dated December 17, 1892. Block's article was a foundational source as were periodical and book archives. From these I have created an impressionistic time line of the history of the house and its intersection with Gatreau. As you'll read, the roots of the house are in hair. Coiffeur Joseph-Augustin Escalier, known as Félix, a favorite of Empress Eugenie, established the business as in 1846 and it came into the hands of brother hair dressers Auguste Poussineau and Émile Martin Poussineau, about 11 years later. The duo added millinery and then dressmaking to their activities and became known for attiring not only aristocrats and fashion leaders but some of the most famous actresses of the day, chief among them Sarah Bernhardt.
1846
Maison Félix established at 13 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré by Joseph-Augustin Escalier.
'The rise of the Maison Felix was due to the Empress Eugenie. While still the Senorita Montijo . . . Eugenie was suddenly robbed by death of her usual hairdresser. There was to be a grand ball that night, and a messenger was dispatched to secure a substitute. He returned with a certain M. Joseph, who pleased her so well that, after a few trials, she told him she would appoint him her coiffure in ordinary. One morning her coupe stopped at his door, No. 13, on the Faubourg Saint Honoré, Eugenie glanced at the number and frowned. When she entered the shop, she said: 'Monsieur, your number must be changed: it is useless to reckon on success with an unlucky number. So much influence had Eugenie that the emperor ordered the city authorities to change the number to 15, and for 40 years 15 it has remained. Eugenie objected also to the name Joseph and commanded him to change it to Felix. . . . Then she advised him to decorate his shop in mauve plush, because mauve was her favorite color, and she meant to make it the fashion. On these conditions she agreed to make Felix the fashion, and she succeeded, for his genius was very great. Felix II added millinery to the coiffure and dressmaking departments, while the third Felix, without royal patronage, has become the richest and most famous couturier in Paris.' —'Late Paris Fashions,' Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, May 13, 1900
