René Bouët-Willaumez

Count René Louis Marie Bouët-Willaumez (12 June 1900 – 14 April 1979), also referred to by his signature R.B.W. was a French fashion illustrator, primarily known for working for Vogue.

Biography Bouët-Willaumez was born in Rennes on 12 June 1900, son of Count Henry Edouard Hervé Bouët-Willaumez and Fanny Marie Anne Dorange. His great-grandfather was Édouard Bouët-Willaumez an admiral in the French Navy, Édouard was the adopted son of Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez (who was appointed a count by King Louis Philippe I in 1844 and with the permission of the King transferred his title to Édouard). The Bouët-Willaumez family was settled around Belle Île though originally from Normandy.

He studied engineering at the École Polytechnique in Paris, Bouët-Willaumez married to German model and interior decorator Margaret Maléna Minnigerode before the outbreak of World War II (later divorced). continuing contributions to the British and French editions until his 1958 retirement in France.

In 1969, he married Fabienne de Boisboissel, de Boisboissel was from Breton nobility like Bouët-Willaumez.

He died on 14 April 1979 in Clamart.

English fashion illustrator David Downtown has cited Bouët-Willaumez as an inspiration.