1921: The Roaring 20s were in full swing. Women cut their hair, wore long stings of pearls and flaunted long cigarette holders, skirts came up above the knee. A famous fabric tradesman, Max Brunhes fell head over heels for Andrée Castaniée, a young woman who was wild about fashion. He offered to create a review dedicated to fashion just for her:
L'Officiel de la couture et de la mode (L'Officiel Couture and Fashion).

He encountered Paris, haute couture, chic elegance and a certain art of living.

The greatest names collaborated on the magazine. Colette took a look at models, Paul Poiret posted his credo - "Only women make fashion. The designers simply offer designs." Marcel Rochas defended Paris, the "forerunner in taste, luxury, fashion." Cocteau boasted about the "caprices" of the "insatiable ogre for fresh flesh" that was fashion.

Forerunner, in 1932, L'Officiel de la couture et de la mode published the first color photos and discovered the "mad Riviera". "Women wear almost nothing," ironically said the magazine, "fabrics must be terribly expensive…"

That year, a young typographer, Georges Jalou, was hired as Art Director. Some thirty years later, having become General Director, he bought the magazine and passed it on to his children. From the beginning, his contemporary layouts, the excellence of the photo quality paper, the magnificent photos - Danielle Darrieux in a Nina Ricci gown - made L'Officiel review indispensable to the profession and to elegant women. It discovered and launched new talents: Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Yves Saint-Laurent.

For Americans in the 50s, l'Officiel was "the fashion bible." For French readers, it was a gold mine that permitted them to copy top designers' models and fabric references and have them made by their seamstresses.

At a time when Haute Couture - dreamt about by every women - reigned, l'Officiel let them attain the inaccessible and made their dreams come true.