It was during a Chanel Haute Couture show at the Ritz that I met Mouna Ayoub. She introduced herself and asked me, "Are you a Haute Couture client too?" "No. Not really. Not really, the House of Chanel has been a patron since the creation of the Musée de la Mode. After each collection, I choose a model and suggest that they donate it to the Museum.
The dialogue continues until the first model arrives. And at the end of the show, Mouna Ayoub invites me to come and see her collection.
Eager to go, the appointment was made for the following day. Mouna Ayoub had transformed her mansion into a house museum. In each room, with shutters closed, her giant wardrobe welcomed us. More than 1,125 outfits labeled Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint-Laurent, Scherrer, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, but also a few Italian Valentino, Versace... Treasures to which were added hundreds of accessories!
We hit it off, and I tell her about Marseille, where I was born, about the Mediterranean we have in common - Mouna was born in Lebanon - and about the exhibitions our Museum has already staged, notably those on Chanel and Yves Saint-Laurent. Little by little, trust was established, and together with Curator Olivier Saillard, we came up with the idea of organizing an exhibition on the unique career of a passionate woman, Haute Couture customer and collector.
Karl Lagarfeld painted her portrait for the catalog.
A few months later, this unexpected encounter becomes a worldwide event.
Elegant, radiant and enthusiastic, Mouna arrives aboard the Phocéa, anchored in the Vieux Port, bringing with her the international press and all the Presidents of the Haute Couture, Métiers d'Art and Jewelry Houses.
Three days of festivities celebrate a woman as exceptional as her collections of dresses, each with its own story. A generous woman, turned towards others by choosing to finance two Marseilles associations close to my heart (the Dominican Church, Professor Marcel Ruffo's Pediatric Service) and one chosen by Mouna, the renovation of the cultural center of the En-Nars Mosque in Marseilles. We'd love to have her back!
