Story: the incredible fate of Jean Schlumberger, the favorite jeweler of New York socialities
Pour l’instant, voici Schlumberger mobilisé. Les Panzer allemands déferlent sur la France : terminé, les vacances en bande à Antibes chez le prince Jean de Polignac et le ski à Davos avec Cecil Beaton. Coincé à Dunkerque parmi 400 000 soldats encerclés par les troupes nazies, Schlumberger réussit à échapper au siège de la ville et à rejoindre l’Angleterre dans une ambiance de fin du monde. Quelque mois plus tard, le téléphone sonne chez Diana Vreeland. « Je suis à Montréal. – Qui parle ? demande Diana Vreeland. – C’est Johnny. Schlumberger. Je suis avec deux amis. Nous venons à New York. Nous sommes terriblement fatigués. »
Who are these two friends?Bongard?Block, the great love of his life?In any case, a new chapter begins which will last.In Manhattan, undoubtedly helped by Vreeland and the Americans at Brique-Poisson, Schlum and Bongard open a first address at 745 Fifth Avenue, very close to Central Park."Johnny" works at the same time at Ninon, seamstress of the elite installed on the same artery and who, twenty years later, will create the famous pink tailor worn in Dallas by Jacqueline Kennedy.He draws for the moment collections which electrify the small midfielder of the VIP style, hailed by Virginia Pope, inventor of fashion journalism for the New York Times.But we do not escape in his time: when the United States engages in the conflict, Schlumberger joins the free French forces, first in London, then in Lebanon, where he will be passionate for the realization of carpets andArtisanal embroidery sold by the ladies of good Beirut society in favor of the war effort.We are an artist or we are not...Nothing that disturbs his hierarchy or the future French government which will even later entrust him with the realization of a pectoral cross for his bliss the Patriarch Maronite of Antioch.Johnny will continue to embroider all his life.
At the end of the war, return to New York.This time at 21 East 63rd Street, where Greta Garbo is met as well as the Duchess of Windsor and Baroness Philippe de Rothschild.Ten years after having been appointed "The Gallic Man of the Hour" by Mademoiselle magazine, this slender great quarantine, with its SO FRENCH, discreet, faithful, is adored by all-manhattan, just like its jewelry that shines in restaurantsIn sight, for the moment at the pavilion, at the Chambord cafe, later at the Basque coast, the frog...The same places where you can meet a certain Walter Hoving.
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