Claude Montana

The past few season’s have been littered with references to iconic eighties designers – Azzadine Alaia, Herve Leger and Thierry Mugler have all been name checked, and now a new name is cropping up in the style pages – Claude Montana. King of the shoulder pad, from his design house in Paris, Montana created the silhouette that we associate with 1980s power dressing – sharp tailoring with exaggerated shoulders and nipped in waists. A cross between Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh, his love of leather and passion for outrageous shapes and strong colours made him something of an enfant terrible of his time.

Kick starting his career with stints producing papier mache jewellery festooned with rhinestones and designing biker leathers, Claude launched his first collection in 1976 – and the fashion pack loved it. Over the following few years he developed his unmistakable style, until he cemented his place in the fashion history books by capturing the zeitgeist of the more-is-more eighties. His favourite fabric to work with was leather – he loved the way that something so soft could be moulded to create hard lines and structure – and he wasn’t afraid to play with it. Who could resist a white leather suit with enormous shawl collar covered in gold embroidery? Understated he was not.

Claude’s fashion star rose at the end of the decade when he was employed by Lanvin to design the Haute Couture collection. He held the post for two years but, although the press loved his work, the Lanvin customer could not be convinced and the house reportedly lost $50 million. By this time fashion was changing and the exaggerated proportions of the eighties were on the wane. Such was his talent that Montana’s collections remained must-haves among fashion fans in the know (one look at the role call of models on his catwalks is enough to confirm this – Yasmin le Bon, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova and even Carla Bruni walked for him), but despite this it became harder and harder to make money and in 1997 he took the decision to sell his business.

Since then the designer has launched a younger label, Montana Blu, along with his own perfumes. He now lives in Spain and, although he may not be the household name that he once was, one look at the autumn collections shows that his influence is still reaching the up-and-coming names of the fashion world.

By Emma Sells