Roger Jean-Pierre
Jean-Pierre was a French designer who began his career in 1934 working for Elsa Schiaparelli until he moved on in 1939. Many of his pieces produced for Schiaparelli are on display in the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From 1940 to 1946, he created fashion designs for Jean Clement.
After World War II, specifically between 1947 and 1958, Roger was director of Maison Francis Winter where he collaborated on jewellery and accessories for Dior, Balenciaga, Gres, Balmain and Lelong. In each of these years, he designed as many as 2500 models for production. These were first shown to haute couturiers and were signed either ‘Winter’ or ‘Jean-Pierre.’ The remaining models were shown to smaller couturiers and department stores.
Pieces by Roger Jean-Pierre are characterised by glamorous designs. He is famed for the use of large ‘fresh water pearls’ in his work, these were glass beads coated in a lustre which gave the appearance of real pearls and are often flanked in rhinestones carefully set into intricate patterns.