Written by: Axelle Vansteenkiste. Reviewed by: Lucinda.
Hirsch & Cie was a Haute Couture fashion house started in the Rue Neuve in Brussels in 1869 by the Jewish entrepreneurs Leo Hirsch (1842-1906) and Johanna Freundenberg (1848-1901). According to Veronique Pouillard, the house focused on high-qualitative and luxury fabrics, clothing, and accessories. Over time, more and more couture departments emerged in the shop. There were different departments for gowns, coats, suits, fur, etc.
Hirsch had a lot of factors that led to their success. First of all, the store opened at a perfect time, because a lot of French people moved to Brussels in the 1870’s due to the Franco-Prussian War. Hirsch did not make its own designs but bought French models to reproduce and sell in their shop, which was completely normal and legal at that time. This way, people were able to buy the same clothing as they did in Paris, which made it a well-appreciated fashion house.
The fashion house was also very innovative, as it had gaslighting, elevators, and shop windows which were not so common in the nineteenth century. Hirsch also benefited from the fact that Johanna Freundenberg was the niece of a Berlin department store owner, which promised a strong business network to begin with.
According to Femke Knoop, Hirsch not only had a lot of success in Brussels, but also in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Keulen, and Dresden. Two men who worked for Hirsch, Sylvain Kahn and Albert Sally Berg, went to Amsterdam in 1882 to look for a property to open a Hirsch fashion house in the city. When they arrived, they were shocked by the Dutch fashion. The French way of dressing was popular in Belgium, but not in The Netherlands, where they followed a completely different type of fashion. Knoop mentions that Kahn later talked about this visit and said “I thought I was in China instead of Amsterdam, because the women were dressed so poorly and odd, and they didn't seem to understand anything about fashion.” This Dutch branch became very successful and is seen as one of the most flourishing Haute Couture houses of that time. The Amsterdam store even continued to exist for over a decade after the Brussels store had been closed down.
By the time the Second World War came around, just like other Haute Couture houses, Hirsch had a hard time. Even though it was founded and owned by a Jewish family, they managed to survive and stay active during the war by making fur waistcoats for the German army and selling luxury products to traveling Germans. Eventually, in 1962, Hirsch’s shop in Brussels closed since they were not so popular anymore. Their designs were seen as old-fashioned by the youth, who became the most determining factor in fashion.
We can conclude that Hirsch & Cie was a very successful store that even managed to go international and survive two World Wars. By copying the Parisian fashion, they became very successful and important in the fashion world. As one of Belgium’s most desirable Haute Couture houses, Hirsch & Cie made a great impact in Belgian fashion in the late nineteenth and the twentieth century. When the class went to visit the Royal Museum of Art & History in Brussels we saw a beautiful ensemble made by Hirsch & Cie. The outfit, consisting of a dress and a cardigan was shown to us by Ria Cooreman, the collection manager of the costume and lace collections of the museum. Ria informed us that the dress was a ball gown for a young fashionable woman. Thanks to the label in the cardigan, it is sure that the outfit was bought in the Brussels shop.
Sources:
Knoop, Femke. Hirsch & Cie Amsterdam (1882-1976). Haute Couture op het Leidseplein. Hilversum: Verloren, 2018.
Pouillard, Veronique. Hirsch & Cie: Bruxelles, 1869-1962. Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles: Brussel, 2000.
Taylor, Lou, en Marie McLoughlin. Paris Fashion and World War Two. Global Diffusion and Nazi Control. Londen: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.