Parisian fashion designer Corinne Cobson dies

Corinne Cobson, the maverick 1990s French fashion designer who also worked in cosmetics, lingerie and furniture design, died on Tuesday, 16 April, in Paris aged 62. The sad news was communicated by her husband Tanguy Loyzance to the AFP agency.

“Corinne Cobson died of cancer in the night in Paris,” stated Loyzance.

Cobson was the daughter of designers Jacqueline and Elie Jacobson, who were active during the ready-to-wear boom at the end of the 1950s. She began her career in the family fashion company, before launching her own ready-to-wear label in 1987.

Before then, she created the costumes for Pascale Ogier in the role of the modern, trendy female protagonist of Eric Rohmer’s 1984 film ‘Les Nuits de la pleine lune’ (Full Moon in Paris), the manifesto of glam Parisian life in the 1980s.

Cobson was skilled at genre-blending, and believed that fashion designers should “take an interest in everything, including object design and industrial packaging.” Her looks were sexy and chic, with a rocker vibe. Her collections had no qualms in combining materials like cotton, linen and leather.

According to Cobson, women should feel “attractive” wearing simple, well-cut clothes made of fine materials.

In the early '90s, Cobson was one of the first designers whose models showed without wearing tights, clad in sweaters with low-cut necklines and ultra-tight trousers.

She was busy on several fronts, including many collaborations, among them with Cacharel and L'Oréal. She recently designed a collection of sofas and chairs described as “neo-chic and ultra-comfortable.”