Repeat High Fashion Award Winner : French Designer Guy Laroche Dies at 67

Guy Laroche, who abandoned dreams of a medical career to become one of the world’s most popular fashion designers, died today at his home on the fashionable Right Bank following a long battle with intestinal cancer. He was 67.

The diminutive Laroche was awarded high fashion’s Golden Thimble award for the best spring haute couture collection three weeks ago. It was the second time he had won the prize.

Laroche, who was the favorite designer of screen star Audrey Hepburn and dressed the wives of French politicians, also gave his name to perfume, beginning with the fragrance Fidji. Among his other clients were Greek actress Melina Mercouri, Charlotte Ford, and former French First Lady Claude Pompidou.

Daring innovation and eye-catching eccentricity were never his forte.

“Guy Laroche dressed women, he didn’t disguise them,” one commentator said.

Laroche went to New York in 1955 to study ready-to-wear techniques, earning his keep on Seventh Avenue as a free-lance designer.

In 1961 after returning to Paris, Laroche launched a ready-to-wear line, which soon earned renown among discriminating women as the most reasonably priced outfits sold by any big name French house. By the 1970s, the number of Laroche’s boutiques swelled to 250 worldwide, including shops in New York, Dallas and Houston.

Laroche once said his dream was to dress actress Jacqueline Bisset.

“She embodies what I like best and what I make best--sexy ultra-feminine dresses which show the body to advantage.”