Gustav Zumsteg
Born(1915-10-11)11 October 1915
Zurich, Switzerland
Died17 June 2005(2005-06-17) (aged 89)
Zurich, Switzerland
Occupations
ParentHulda Zumsteg (mother)

Gustav Zumsteg (11 October 1915 – 17 June 2005) was a Swiss art collector, silk merchant and owner of the restaurant Kronenhalle in Zurich.[1]

Early life

Gustav Zumsteg was born in Zurich, to Hulda Zumsteg, owner of the Kronenhalle restaurant.[2] He had an older sister, Hedi. His father died when Gustav was eight weeks old.

Professional life

Silk trading house Ludwig Abraham & Co

In 1931 he joined as an apprentice at the silk trading house Ludwig Abraham & Co - a business founded in 1863 under the name Königsberger, Rüdenberg & Co.[3] in Krefeld, Germany,[4] and that moved to Zurich where Jakob Abraham became a partner in 1878.[3]

From 1936, Zumsteg lived in Paris, where he met the artists and couturiers personally. He also managed Abraham's Paris subsidiary from 1941 on, became the chief designer and in 1943 a partner in the company.[5] In 1957 he met Yves Saint Laurent, whose collections were henceforth influenced by Zumsteg's designs and Abraham's fabrics.[2]

In 1968, after the resignation of Ludwig Abraham, Zumsteg became the sole proprietor and director of the silk company.[4] He mainly focused on textiles for haute couture and began Abraham's collaboration with well known Parisian fashion houses[6] — not just with Cristóbal Balenciaga[7] but also Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Coco Chanel, and Emanuel Ungaro.[4] Abraham's Ltd will become one of the major suppliers of fabrics to the house of Saint Laurent.[8]

However, the company itself did not manufacture the silk fabrics.[9] The production was outsourced to manufactories in France and Italy who implemented the work of Paris and Lyon based design teams led by Zumsteg.[10]

From 1970s on, the market for Haute Couture has gradually vanished due to the global end-of-an-era changes with cheaper silk prints from Asia and the rising mass market with easier to care for fabrics that did not need tailoring.[9] With the design of prints for the high end of the ready-to-wear market, Zumsteg adjusted the business to the new situation.[11]

By the 1990s, the silk company was operating at a loss, even after Zumsteg's injections from his personal fortune.[9] After the 40-year collaboration with Abraham's longest client Yves Saint Laurent[4] came to an end in 1995[11] and no successor to Zumsteg was found, Abraham's Ltd. ceased operations in 2002.[4]

Restaurant "Kronenhalle" and art collecting

After the death of his mother, Hulda Zumsteg, in 1957, he took over the management of the restaurant Kronenhalle.[12]

As an art collector until his death in 2005, he ensured that guests could dine in his Zurich restaurant surrounded by the works of world-famous artists -among others Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti and Jean Tinguely.[1]

Further reading

  • Christie; Manson & Woods (London) (April 1976), Seven Pictures from the Zumsteg Collection (Picasso - Monet - Kandinsky - Leger - Matisse - Braque). Illustrated Catalogue. von Collezione Zumsteg)., Libreria Oreste Gozzini snc

References

  1. 1 2 Studer, Margaret (9 June 2006). "Dining With Modernism's Masters". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 Times, Susan Heller Anderson Special To the New York (16 March 1980). "Food, Fabric, Art: Gustav Zumsteg's Three Lives; Some Distinguished Guests Fabrics for Saint Laurent". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 Soie pirate. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess. 2010. ISBN 978-3-85881-724-2.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jacobs, Laura (28 May 2011). "Fashion's Eternal Flame". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  5. ↑ "The Design Library | Abraham Paper Impression Collection". design-library.com. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  6. ↑ Nick Foulkes (12 March 2018). "A rare interview with Hubert de Givenchy". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  7. ↑ Jacobs, Laura (8 February 2013). "The Mortal Weight of the Dress". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  8. ↑ Morris, Bernadine (6 December 1983). "Gala Night at MET hails Saint Laurent". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 Isobel Leybold-Johnson (25 October 2010). "The rise and fall of a silk empire". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  10. ↑ Zitzmann, Marc (9 September 2021). "Yves Saint Laurent: Neue Ausstellung in Paris über seine Stoffe". NZZ Bellevue (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  11. 1 2 "Silks & Prints from the Abraham archive: Couture in Colour / MoMu Antwerp". MoMu Antwerp. 30 March 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  12. ↑ Cansino, Barbara (4 January 1987). "Zurich's haven of genius and joviality". The New York Times.
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