WWD - April 2003

Mystery Man

Just because Julia Roberts wears a vintage Jean Jourban Paris gown to the Oscars doesn't mean there will be sudden new interest in the designer similar to what happened to Koos van den Akker or Kaisik Wong after their old clothes were resurrected in fashionable circles. Elizabeth Mason, owner of the vintage shop Paper Bag Princess that supplied the dress, said on Tuesday that it came from an estate sale, but that she had no further information on its origins beyond what was listed on the care tag: "Made in California."

"My feeling is that it was California-based ready-to-wear company that used the name Jean Jourban," Mason said, going a little further to estimate that it was made in the Seventies because of its polyester jersey fabric.

But Jourban, whether it was a real person or a made-up name, evidently had little other lasting impact on fashion. Curators at both the Costume Institute of Technology had no records on Jourban. Even John Pomerantz, chairman
of Leslie Fay Co., whose company dominated the moderate dress market then, hadn't a clue.

"I've never heard of it, " Pomerantz said. Fashion textbooks don't list Jourban, and other experts polled Tuesday came up empty. "I've never heard of him," said Bloomingdale's Kal Ruttenstein, who has left few stones unturned over decades seeking out fashion talent.

According to Paris-based fashion historian Florence Muller, Jourban could be one of man small couturiiers who toiled anonymously in Paris. Or could that Paris, Tex?