Jenny Sacerdote

Jenny Sacerdote studied at École normale supérieure de jeunes filles. The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with House of Paquin. Work by Jenny Sacerdote is recorded in the collections of Palais Galliera, Brooklyn Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Name — Jenny Sacerdote • Birth Name — Jeanne Adèle Bernard • Other Names — Madame Jenny • Born — 1868 • Birthplace — Périgueux, Dordogne, France • Died — 1962 • Place of death — Nice, France • Occupation — * Fashion designer • dressmaker • Known for — Little grey suit

Jeanne Adèle Bernard was born in Périgueux in the Dordogne in 1868. Her mother and grandmother worked in fashion, but she studied to become an academic before turning to fashion at the age of 39. She bought the chateau of Château-l'Évêque, the former summer palace of the Bishop of Périgueux, in 1923. She married Emil Sacerdote in 1909 and they divorced in 1940. She died in Nice in 1962.

Sacerdote opened her first shop at 1 rue de Castiglione in 1909. She developed the "Jenny neck", a boat neck, in 1911 and the "little grey suit" in 1915. By 1915 her premises at 70, Champs-Élysées, included 22 workshops, a restaurant, and showrooms decorated by Robert Mallet-Stevens. It was said that she invented the "little black dress" before Chanel. Her fashion house closed in 1940. Sacerdote became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1926, for services to fashion. She was only the second woman to be granted this honour. • Illustration — The Chateau of Château-l'Evêque, which Sacerdote bought in 1923