From Haute Couture to Anne Sinclair, the incredible destiny of Anny Blatt, the forgotten queen of knitting

FASHIONAs the historic house reopens its doors under the impetus of two women, Anne and Marion, a look back at the story of a designer and her mohair sweaters that have become cult.

By Margaux Krehl

It's a little-known brand that should speak to a few fashion history enthusiasts, or to the elegant women of the 80s. Here is Anny Blatt in full renaissance under the impetus of Anne, the stylist, and Marion, the president of the label, determined to "relaunch this emblematic brand of her childhood". On the program, knits, nothing but knits, the specialty of this forgotten house, launched in the 1930s.

Who is Anny Blatt?

Born in 1910 in Mulhouse, Anny Blatt quickly left her native Alsace for bustling Paris. Here she is, at the age of 23, at the head of a Haute Couture house specializing in the manufacture of "needle clothes", supported by her mother, who runs the workshops - however, no information exists on what happened to her. allowed to launch his own house. Based in rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Anny Blatt quickly enjoyed an excellent reputation: her first collection caught the eye of Vogue magazine, which, for the year 1933 alone, featured five of her creations in its pages. The specialty of the young designer? “City sweaters”, woolen pieces as chic as they are comfortable, a small revolution for the time. Like Gabrielle Chanel before her, Anny Blatt has only one idea in mind: to liberate women's bodies without sacrificing their elegance, echoing the current of female emancipation that appeared in the Roaring Twenties.

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— very knowledgeable Mon Apr 13 10:20:45 +0000 2015

From Paris to New York

Intrepid, Anny Blatt is. In 1934, the designer crossed the Atlantic to go to the United States, to New York, where she planned to open a subsidiary of her brand. As in Paris, the success was immediate, as the label's website tells us: “Anny Blatt became the darling of elegant American women, who adored her creations. The New York Times described her, in an article published on October 13, 1935, as a “pioneer of the needle”! ".

At the same time, the busy designer launched a second company in France, Les Laines Anny Blatt, through which she sold her raw material: wool. She has her own balls made, which bear her name and are marketed in a shop on rue Réaumur, and also creates her own yarn, the "weekend yarn", when she is not giving knitting lessons to a handful. of clients. Always in this idea of ​​a "do it yourself" luxury, Anny Blatt also imagines Haute Couture models to make yourself, the details of which are published in women's magazines of the time. The Second World War, however, put an end to this meteoric rise. Of Jewish faith, Anny Blatt was indeed forced to entrust her business, Aryanized, to her partner, who would continue the activity of the latter throughout the Occupation. It was not until 1945, at the end of the war, that the designer took over the reins.

Haute Couture star and “knitting magician”

It was Anny Blatt, more acclaimed than ever, who returned to the Haute Couture scene in 1945: selected by the Parisian Couture union chamber alongside houses such as Hermès or Van Cleef & Arpels, the designer embarked on a traveling exhibition from London to New York. The opportunity for the whole world to discover the Alsatian designer's “elegant and light, comfortable, easy to wear” knitwear. Lightening the woman's wardrobe is the obsession of Anny Blatt, who in 1953 unveiled a very luxurious evening dress weighing only 180 grams. A feat that makes her the “magician of knitting”, as Le Monde calls her.

80s woman

Sold to the Hervillier textile group in 1968, the Anny Blatt house definitively ceased Haute Couture to concentrate on wool and the sweaters that made its reputation. With the idea of ​​perpetuating the designer's “do it yourself” tradition, a bimonthly catalog offers readers and fans of the label all the instructions for making the brand's flagship models themselves. It was a success, and in the middle of the 80s, Anny Blatt was on the backs of all the elegant women, fans of these luxurious sweaters that even the stars snapped up. Linda Evangelista on the cover of issue 73 of the house magazine, or Anne Sinclair, presenter-star of 7 sur 7 whose mohair sweaters hit the headlines as much as her interviews… All women love Anny Blatt.

The icing on the cake, in 1985, the label acquired the services of Serge Gainsbourg, who signed for Anny Blatt the production and original music of an advertising campaign intended for television. A woman, a man, a sweater, a sensual soundtrack and a slogan – "Create your seduction" – complete Anny Blatt's brand that everyone tears away.

Then Anny Blatt falls into oblivion, like knitting, which no longer fits with the intense schedule of women of the 90s, who are asked to manage professional life and family life like Wonder Women. The emergence of fashion made in Asia also jeopardizes the French textile industry and the local companies that go with it. Bought in 1991 by the Pierre de Loye spinning mill, Anny Blatt closed its doors at the same time as the latter in 2019. A year later, two enthusiasts bought the brand and its archives, before unveiling, in the fall of 2021, a new collection showcasing the best of Anny Blatt's know-how and offering, of course, cuddly sweaters that have everything to achieve the same success as those imagined by a young Alsatian almost a century earlier.

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