Gaby Aghion, who started the Chloe fashion house and oversaw its rise as a postwar style icon, died at her Paris home on Saturday, aged 93. "She left us today, discreetly and peacefully", the company said on its official Twitter account. The Chloe spring-summer 2015 ready-to-wear show being staged on Sunday at Paris fashion week "is dedicated to her", it said.
Born in Egypt, Aghion co-founded Chloe in 1952 with business partner Jacques Lenoir. The fashion house was one of the first labels to offer high-quality ready-to-wear, and became known for its laid-back elegance. Several designers recruited by Aghion for Chloe became high-wattage stars in their own right, starting with Karl Lagerfeld, whom she named the head designer in 1966, and where he remained until 1984.
"Karl Lagerfeld truly created the Chloe identity. Evanescent, ephemeral, fluid, light as air, his clothing expressed the freedom and fantasies of an entire generation," Aghion once said of the designer. Aghion sold her holdings in Chloe in 1985 to the Richemont luxury group, but remained faithful to the fashion house, attending nearly every catwalk show during the Paris season. Last December she received the Legion of Honour, France's highest distinction, attending the ceremony in a wheelchair.
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