Considered a fashion God by fashion critics and his professional peers, Claude Montana didn't just design clothing, he designed an era. From creating papier mache jewelry in his younger years to his fascination with the possibilities of leather, Claude Montana was a complex, technically savvy designer.

Known for his brilliance with color, and use of unique textures and fabrics in his signature aggressive silhouettes, Montana's designs became the most recognizable definition of the 1980's. His fastidious attention to detail is well documented and he even required his models to stand in a certain way to appropriately compliment his silhouettes. He was notoriously late for his fashion shows, often making the audience wait for 45 minutes or more. But, no one was ever disappointed and it is reported that women often cried during his shows.

Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana were both highly influential in making the Amazon warrior woman silhouette a popular fashion statement in the 1980's. While Mugler's designs tended to have more of a playful tone to them , Claude Montana's pieces were designed to be taken very seriously.

Claude Montana designed the haute couture collections for the House of Lanvin from 1990-1992. Though he received two consecutive Golden Thimble awards for his work at Lanvin, the collections were not well received by the public so Montana was replaced.

Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, Lee Alexander McQueen, Olivier Theyskens, Nicolas Ghesquière, Gareth Pugh, and Martin Margiela were all inspired by Claude Montana. Even Yves Saint Laurent considered Montana to be the future of fashion.

Some say, it was the high pedestal Montana was put on as a supernatural fashion king that lead to the demise of his career. Others say it was the death of his wife, Wallis Franken, that led to Montana's retreat from fashion and the public eye. Though Montana was openly gay, Wallis had been his muse for many years and they had been good friends so the hope was that the marriage was to be good publicity. In 1996, Franken died after falling three stories from their Paris apartment. He refuses to discuss Wallis to this day.

We grab Claude Montana pieces whenever we can and we love how they feel and how they make us feel when we wear them!