Emmanuelle Khanh, was born Renée Mazière on September 12, 1937 in Paris. At 17, the young Emmanuelle Khanh began a modeling career for Haute Couture, and frequented the greats of fashion, Balenciaga, Givenchy. In 1957 she marries Quasar Khanh, designer, engineer, inventor and artist who will revolutionize the furniture of the 60s and 70s by inventing innovative materials, and will become world famous for his inflatable vinyl creations. In the early 1960s, she turned to styling. It captures an era in full change: women's bodies are freed, fashion is democratized, young people are becoming aware of their strength. A visionary, she imagines a wardrobe for modern, free and active women wishing to free themselves from still rigid social constraints. She then worked with the rising brands of the time, Cacharel or Missoni. In 1969 Emmanuelle Khanh is launching her eponymous women's ready-to-wear brand. Convinced that fashion must go beyond the borders of Parisian Haute Couture salons, she wants to free forms and materials and bring fashion to the streets. She revolutionized the fashion of her time: through forms, which offer women an ease of movement that they could not find elsewhere; through the materials used, such as jeans or plastic. Inspired by her husband, designer Quasar Khanh, she reinvents the material for clothing. The success is immediate. In 1971 Emmanuelle Khanh launches her first eyewear collection. To do this, she joined forces with Henri Guillet and the best workshops in Oyonnax, in the Jura, and imagined a range of marked, voluminous frames, with clean lines, immediately iconic. With Emmanuelle Khanh, glasses become a fashion accessory in their own right, the signature of a daring style, both eccentric and elegant. Traditional know-how is at the heart of the manufacture of frames from the outset. The designer will never cease to pay tribute to eyewear craftsmanship, by incorporating all possible daring into her creations: rhinestones, enamels, inlaid metal decorations, engravings, furs or skins. In the winter of 2017 Madame Khanh dies in Paris. Having revolutionized women's fashion and the world of ready-to-wear, she bequeathed to future generations much more than style, a militant and daring state of mind and the desire to reconcile elegance and the strength of women and left a legacy of amazing iconic models that even today are reinterpreted by many brands, and still has a legion of followers being Lady Gaga one of them, and also iconic ambassadors like David Bowie was.
