Marie Madeleine Duchapt

Marie Madeleine Duchapt (d. after 1761), was a famous French fashion merchant, (Marchandes de modes). Active during the 1730s to 1760s, she succeeded Françoise Leclerc as the most fashionable fashion merchant in Paris, and has been referred to as the first famous fashion celebrity of the Parisian fashion business and a predecessor of Rose Bertin.

Leben

Marie Madeleine Duchapt has been referred to as Madame Duchapt, Mademoiselle Duchapt and finally, when she was most famous, as only 'La Duchapt'. She was reportedly married to the mercer Martin Arnaud Loysant, a common background for a fashion merchant, who were often the wives of textile mercers. In her epoch, however, it was not unusual for married women to be called "mademoiselle" even if they were married, as the title of 'Madame' was a prestigious title.

Career

She was the manager of the famous fashion shop Chande de modes in Paris, and achieced fame enough to only be known as "La Duchapt".

She is noted in 1734, when she had begun to make herself noted in her profession by receiving great orders from women of the nobility and started to become a serious competitor to Françoise Leclerc, the official dressmaker of the queen, whom she seems to have supplanted as a leading figure of her trade a few years later.

During the period of fashion, from 1740 to 1770, the basic dress model remained the same and was produced by a seamstress or tailor, but fashion was expressed by changes in trimming, hats and accessories, which was a reason for why fashion merchants such as Duchapt, whose business was accessories, to have such influence in the world of fashion. While the guild of fashion merchants, Marchandes de modes, was not created before 1776, the profession as such existed for a least half a century prior, and became reality after the success of representatives of the profession such as Duchapt.

She had clients among both the Parisian aristocracy as well as among the ladies-in-waiting of the royal court of Versailles. Charles Philippe d'Albert de Luynes noted that she made a study trip with her client, the king's mistress Louise Julie de Mailly, to Spain 1739 in order to dress Mailly for the comming French-Spanish Royal wedding.

She is still mentioned as famous in 1756, and noted in the records as active in 1761. She was the rival of Mademoiselle Alexandre, who had succeeded her as the leading fashion merchant of Paris by 1772, when Duchapt is mentioned as a former celebrity. Many Parisian fashion designers was long disfavorably compared to her.

Legacy

Marie Madeleine Duchapt is mentioned in contemporary letters, memoirs and novels.

Voltaire referred to her fame in 1752 as an illustration of the shallowness of the epoch of Louis XV in contrast to that of Louis XIV.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau mention her in his memoirs as a popular place for those wishing to get to know Paris, and noted that many men visited her famous shop to speak to her shop girls.

She was portrayed in a contemporary novel, La Sainte Nitouche, ou Histoire galante de la Tourière des Carmélites, suivie de l'histoire de La Duchapt, célèbre marchand de mode (London, 1748; rev. ed. Paris, 1830)