#MaleFashionDesigners #FashionSpotlight Marcel Vertes

Marcel Vertes was among of the many who escaped the Nazi invasion of Europe. For Vertes, he was able to escape the invasion of Paris by two days. He and his wife was not strangers to New York. Vertes had already came to the states as a painter in 1935 to make contacts in the art world and in 1937 he had his first one-man show in New York City.

Before the move, Vertes was familiar with film having costumed Alexander Korda's silent "Tragodie im Hause Habsburg" (1924). In the '30s, he had also costumed several films from the French "The Adventures of King Pausole (1933) to an uncredited "The Mikado" (1939) which he not only costumed but composed the set decoration. But his best known production work is in the Henri de Toulouse Lautrec's bio-pic "Moulin Rouge" (1952). In order to earn his college tuition into Academy Julian, Vertes himself would make forgeries of the famous French artist.

Vertes returned to Paris ten years later where he continued his sponsorship to the American Federation of Arts and was made an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1955. He spent the next five years designing ballets at the Paris Opera, Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey's Circus in 1956. In 1961, Vertes became a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. He died in Paris later that year on October 31.