DANIELE GEORGIOU'S ACCOUNT CONTINUED

I often had the chance to get very large tips during the Christmas season and after the final fittings. The head seamstress also received the same amount of money up to five hundred Francs. I was also given beautiful presents for my children's birth. Being always very generous, M. Molinari would give me beautiful gifts such as a pearl necklace, a mink tie and a mink fur hat, perfumes, everything with an envelope containing a hundred Francs. He was always very kind and caring towards me at any time and often would take me out to eat. I was very spoiled.

There was much joy and cheerfulness in the boutique and he made us laugh often because he had a very good sense of humor. On the other hand, when he needed my attention a little too much asking for my help, I would sometimes suddenly leave the boutique to get some fresh air and come back thirty minutes later after walking around the block a few times. When I would come back, he would be there welcoming me with open arms saying how sorry he was and kissing me on the cheek. He was so afraid I would not come back.

We shared a deep friendship and complicity together. He would often tell me that I was his doppelganger and that he did not know what to do when I was not there. When he retired, I continued to visit him and keep him company until he passed away.

November 25 was Saint Catherine Day, the patron saint of fashion. A day of fun and costume, cocktails, and restaurant: finishing up with a grand ball in one of the most famous Parisian salons. (I went to Maxim's twice and had lunch on the bateaux mouches). When the day for medals came, I received a gold medal for ten years and then for twenty five years of working at Pierre Balmain, the silver gilt cup for twenty five years and the medals of the Ministry of Labor.

In 1956, and the following years, I would write to my husband Claude everyday during my lunch break, after he left for the war in Algeria and would hurry to drop off my letter to the nearest mailbox close to work, before going back to work. In the boutique, there was always a family-like ambiance. Having no news from him in 3 weeks, the director Madame Rameau sent a colleague to the Ministry of the Army to find out if he was not missing in action. It was kind of her to do so and made me feel reassured.

I would take advantage of my two hour lunch break to visit the seamstresses and learn their skills when later on I made my own dresses and those of my daughter Sylvie.

We were given five weeks off every year. Two weeks in winter and three weeks in summer. Among the other advantages, we were allowed to get two Pierre Balmain outfits every season we could choose from the collection models. It was also the custom to offer each employee her own wedding dress. Therefore, I chose to wear a very simple short dress because I did not want a train and nobody could figure out why.

At Christmas time, I also learned how to wrap up the presents at a very accelerated pace which I did enjoy.

And then the inventory would come at the beginning of January, a task that would keep us busy for a whole month writing down everything. I did appreciate being able to sit down to work.

In 1985 I was promoted to be in charge of the sales boutique or discount boutique, rue Laffitte in the 9th arrondissement. I accepted that position with the condition to reach the statute of cadre or executive as well as being able to return rue Francois 1er in case things would not turn out. Which happened ten months later. I got easily bored in that boutique because it was so different and the turnover and the type of clients were not at all the same.

The Pierre Balmain Director asked me to become the co-director with Eva, a saleswoman of La Haute Couture . There were not any more presentations on the runways, we were only dealing with Pret-a-Porter with some fittings but we always had many sales.

My last couple of years I was transferred to La Boutique Hommes or Menswear. Although it was a very different experience for me, I did like that position with nicer clients, easier to wait on and especially quicker to make up their mind.

Starting out at 18, I was lucky to be able to retire early at the age of 57, in 1994 after 38 years of work.

I now realize that I would never have been able to have another profession because of being around such a privileged environment that only exists in the world of haute couture or high fashion. We all worked very hard and it was always in a cheerful and happy setting.

I had the privilege to meet people from high society; it was very pleasant to wait on and above all, be able to watch wonderful collections on the runways. What is being shown today has nothing to do with what I have experienced. The summary of my professional career explains why I remained so long in that exceptional environment that has kept me fascinated and that I remember with fond memories.

That profession taught me a lot and made me discover a different world by being around a very wealthy clientele. After Pierre Balmain's death in 1982, Mr. Eric Mortensen succeeded him. Pierre Balmain had been a renowned high fashion designer who founded his business in 1945, specializing in creating sumptuous evening dresses. He dressed many celebrities in the city as well as on the stage.

Here is the list of the many celebrities he dressed and that I met at the same time by taking the same hallway through the boutique. Among the crown heads of the world, the Countess of Paris and her daughters and among them her oldest daughter( the princess Isabelle), Anne Claude de France, the Princess Bernadotte de Bourbon Parme, the Duchess of Luxembourg, her daughter the Princess Margaretha, the Queen Fabiola of Belgium (wife of King Baudoin), the Princess Maria Pia of Yugoslavia, the Princess Marie Gabrielle of Savoie, the Queen Hanako of Japan, the Queen Sirikit of Thailand, the Queen Sonya of Norway, the Queen of Jordania (wife of King Hussein), the Princess Soraya (wife of the Shah of Iran) as well as numerous other princesses of the Arab Emirates.

A few Ministers's wives: Mrs. Raymond Barre  Prime Minister of France, Mrs. Giscard d'Estaing whose husband was President of France, Mrs.Chirac, wife of the President of France, Mrs. Papon whose husband was Minister of Finance, Mrs. Marcel d'Assault famous French Industrialist, Mrs Peugeot.

Movie stars: Roger Vadim, Sammy Davis Junior, Claude Dauphin, Francis Perrin, Pierre Mondy, Among those who accompanied their wives, Henri Salvador, Julien Clerc, Gilbert Becaud, Serge Gainsbourg.

Annie Girardot, Simone Signoret, Michele Morgan, Rosy Varte, Dany Robin, Edwige Feuillere, Francoise Arnoult, Stephane Audran, Simone Renan, Brigitte Fossey, Nadine Taillier (became Mrs de Rotschild), Martine Carol, Micheline Presle, Micheline Dax, Marina Vladi, Brigitte Bardot, Miou Miou, Sophie Desmarets, Claudia Cardinal, Suzanne Flon, Odile Versois. I also had the chance to meet Bernard Tapie (French tycoon, businessman and politician).

Foreign movie stars: Sophie Loren, Kathryn Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Natalie Wood, Anita Ekberg, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Lana Turner, etc.

The singers: Juliette Greco, Line Renaud, Annie Cordy, Dalida, Jane Birkin, Jessy Norman, Maria Callas, Nina Simon. I personally took care of Line Renaud and of Nina Simon.

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