Fonds

Jean-Claude
Poitras is one of Quebec's most respected and celebrated fashion designers of
recent decades. His curiosity, resilience and rapport with the press and public
have marked his career of more than thirty years working in Montreal's high-end
ready-to-wear fashion industry. Poitras has weathered successes and failures in
business, seen enormous changes to the industry and production methods, and
still managed to stay passionate and enthusiastic about designing clothing.

Born in
Montreal's Cartierville neighborhood in 1949, Poitras was interested in fashion
from a young age. He earned a diploma in Fashion Design from the École des
métiers commerciaux in 1969, and a diploma in Graphic Design from Studio
Salette in 1971.

In 1972,
with a $400 loan from his father, Poitras opened his first atelier, Parenthèse,
in Montreal's Old Port. He designed men's and women's fashions and accessories,
which were sold to private clients and at the Lily Simon boutique. To help
support his fledgling fashion business, in 1973 Poitras took a part-time job as
a salesperson at Eaton's Adam Boutique, the department store's high-end European
menswear shop. Later that year, he closed Parenthèse to work full-time at
Eaton's.

Poitras
quickly rose through the ranks at Eaton's, becoming the buyer, then the
director of the Adam Boutique, and eventually the director of the high-end
women's Ensemble Shop. It was through Eaton's that he first travelled to France
and Italy and discovered a love of travel that would inspire his creative
practice throughout his career. For spring-summer 1993, for example, Poitras
designed a womenswear collection titled La Dolce Vita, which
contained garments inspired by his favourite places in Italy.

In 1976,
Poitras accepted a position at Beverini Inc., the Montreal-based manufacturer
founded by Auckie Sanft and run by his son Arthur Sanft. Poitras originally
worked as a salesperson for an imported French brand, Peroche. He was promoted
in 1977 to designer of his own womenswear collection, a line called BOF!, which
was very successful in Quebec. Menswear was added in 1978, and a BOF! boutique
was opened on St. Paul Street West in 1979. Poitras finally left the company in
1983 to pursue other projects, and the boutique closed soon thereafter.

In 1977,
just after Poitras started at Beverini, he also founded his own company: Les
modes Jean-Claude Poitras Inc. The new company enabled Poitras to license his
name for collaborations with garment, accessory, fur and uniform manufacturers.
In 1983, he renamed his company Nota Bene Design Inc. and, with the backing of
private investors, opened his Jean-Claude Poitras Boutique in Rockland Centre.
The designer envisioned creating special men's and women's collections for the
store, but it closed by the end of the same year.

From 1983
to 1988, Poitras worked for Franck Importations Inc., a Montreal-based
manufacturer and importer of womenswear, founded in 1977 by husband and wife
team Annie and Armand Coriat. Poitras signed licensing agreements with the
Coriats to manufacture his women's collections, and he designed for the
company's Ronsard Sport brand. With Franck, Poitras travelled to Hong Kong
twice yearly to source fabrics and oversee production of his collections. This
connection with Chinese manufacturers led Poitras to start working with silk
fabrics. His asymmetrical, often layered designs during this period were
heavily influenced by the Japanese avant-garde fashion that had taken the world
by storm in the early 1980s.

From the
mid 1980s to the early 1990s, Poitras' Nota Bene Design signed licensing
agreements for the designer to produce namesake collections for Montreal
furrier Amsel & Amsel and sheepskin coat manufacturers International
Trademarks Apparel and Sawyer of Napa.

In 1987,
Jean-Claude Poitras, with business partner Jacques Pelland, founded a new
company, Poitras Design Inc. At first, due to limitations imposed by licensing
agreements with Franck Importations, the company produced menswear only.
Womenswear collections were added in 1988.

Poitras
briefly worked for Le Château as a design consultant in 1988. In 1990, he was
approached to design a capsule menswear collection for the brand consisting of
suits, coats, shirts, pants, shoes and accessories. Poitras welcomed the
collaboration as a way to make his designs more accessible and reach a younger
clientele. The licensing agreement lasted until 1991 and, at the time, was the
designer's most lucrative contract of his career.

In 1990,
partnering with the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec, Poitras
Design Inc. merged with Irving Samuel Canada Inc., the leading high-quality
coat and suit manufacturer. Jean-Claude Poitras became executive vice-president
of the company and head of design and production for his collections, which
were separate from the Irving Samuel brand. He designed his exclusive namesake
label and, in spring 1994, relaunched the women's BOF! brand as a more
mass-market line. Irving Samuel-Poitras Design closed its doors in 1995 after
failing to reach cost-cutting agreements with the International Ladies Garment
Workers Union. Jean-Claude Poitras was able to retain the rights to his name as
the company declared bankruptcy.

Soon after
the Irving Samuel-Poitras Design closure, Arthur Sanft offered the designer a
new partnership in his company, Fashion Société Design Inc. The company
manufactured two womenswear collections for Poitras: Qui m'aime me suive was a
line of dresses and eveningwear, while BOF! continued to be produced as an
affordable line for wide distribution. By mid-1998, Fashion Société Design had
run into financial difficulties and Arthur Sanft decided to leave the company.
Although it was purchased by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which
continued to work with Poitras, it ultimately ceased all operations by the end
of the same year.

In 1999,
Poitras became associated with Montréal Mode, a subsidiary of the Caisse de
dépôt et placement du Québec created to promote Québec's fashion industry
internationally. By investing $30 million in local companies, Montréal Mode
aimed to provide select designers with production, distribution and marketing
support. Poitras sold his name and part of his company to the organization. In
2000, Poitras left Montréal Mode amidst a series of widely publicized internal
financial scandals; he was eventually able to regain control of his name.
Montréal Mode ceased all activities in 2001.

Poitras
designed his final ready-to-wear collection for fall-winter 2002-2003 -- a line
of women's coats for Me-Jay International Inc. He has continued to design
custom garments for private clients and special projects. In 2015, he
collaborated with embroiderer Jeanne Bellavance and bespoke tailoring studio
Sartorialto to create the ensemble worn by Haitian-Canadian journalist and
writer Dany Laferrière for his induction into the Académie française.

Poitras'
style often made use of ample cuts; he appreciated the sensuality in garments
that covered most of the body. He preferred an architectural and severe
silhouette. His women's fashions were often influenced by menswear, taking
inspiration from the masculine chic of film stars Marlene Dietrich and
Katherine Hepburn. Coats and outerwear were the most commercially successful
garments for Poitras throughout his career; their high quality and stylishness
were admired by the press and the public.

In addition
to his fashion work, Poitras designed numerous uniforms throughout his lengthy
career. His first was created for Radio-Canada's announcers during the Montreal
1976 Summer Olympic Games. Others were for White Cross, Air Canada, the Canada
Border Service Agency, Canada Post, Hydro Québec, the Montreal Museum of Fine
Arts, and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), among others.

Always
influenced by the cinema, Poitras also designed film and theatre costumes
throughout the 1980s. Andrée Lachapelle, a long-time friend of the designer,
wore a Poitras dress in Pierre Blackburn's 1989 film Le jeune homme et
la dame.

Poitras has
received numerous awards and distinctions including the Maison du Lin's Fil
d'Or in Monte Carlo in 1989. Past recipients include Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni
Versace -- Poitras was the first Canadian to receive the prestigious award. He
was named to the Order of Canada in 1995. In 1996, he was named a Knight of the
Ordre national du Québec and promoted to Officer in 2012. He won both best
women's and men's wear designer in 1991 at the first edition of the Griffe d'Or;
he was also awarded the Griffe d'Or for lifetime achievement in 2000.

As of 2019,
Jean-Claude Poitras was still pursuing multi-disciplinary design, art-making,
teaching, writing, lecturing and philanthropic activities. He enjoys being
remembered for his fashion design career the way one of his clients once
characterized him: "the man who made nice clothes." He recently
published a memoir, Quand la vie défile. His archives and garments
are held by the McCord Museum and the Musée de la civilisation.