Emmanuelle Khanh

Emmanuelle Khanh (12 September 1937 – 17 February 2017) was a French fashion designer, stylist and model. She was particularly known for her distinctive outsize eyewear, and was considered one of the leading young designers of the 1960s New Wave movement in France.

Early life She was born Renée Georgette Jeanne Mézière in Paris on 12 September 1937, and nicknamed Nono. Her father René worked for the French Resistance newspaper Combat. Her mother, Ernestine, died when Renée was 10 years old.

Fashion design

In 1962, Khanh and Christiane Bailly launched their first collection under the label Emma Christie, which was retailed through popular Paris boutiques.

In 1964, she signed an exclusive contract with the New York City department store Henri Bendel, and also sold clothing through Macy's "Little Shop" boutiques.

In addition to Missoni, Khanh also designed collections for similarly youth-oriented labels Krizia and Cacharel.

A contemporary press piece in 1968 ranked Khanh and Bailly alongside Michèle Rosier as part of a "new race" of young designers, described as "stylists who work for ready-to-wear." These French ready-to-wear designers were called créateurs.

In 1971, Khanh and the London-based Ossie Clark were the first members of a new fashion group, Créateurs et Industriels, founded by the manufacturer Didier Grumbach as a means of bringing together innovative ready-to-wear designers from around the world (including Issey Miyake and Thierry Mugler) with manufacturers prepared to promote their originality. The group was eventually absorbed by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture who realised that such original and creative ready-to-wear was more profitable and widely marketable than haute couture, and created its own equivalent group, also supervised by Grumbach, the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode.

She founded her own company in 1971, Emmanuelle Khanh Paris, opened the first boutiques in her own name in 1977, and formed Emmanuelle Khanh International in 1987. The company closed in the late 1990s, and the Khanh brand was sold in 2007 to a Dutch conglomerate.

Later life and death Emmanuelle Khanh died at her Paris home of pancreatic cancer on 17 February 2017, aged 79.