Jean Patou

French fashion designer and founder of the Jean Patou brand. Patou designed the - then-daring - sleeveless and knee-length cut tennis wear for Suzanne Lenglen. He also was the first designer to popularize the cardigan and moved fashion towards the natural and comfortable. Jean Patou is credited with inventing the "designer tie" in the 1920s.

Patou's clothes were marketed mostly to rich American women. When the stock market crashed, however, so did the market for luxury fashion. The House of Patou survived through its perfumes, which remain well known today. The best known of Patou's perfumes is Joy, a heavy floral scent, based on the most precious rose and jasmine. Joy was created by Henri Alméras for Patou at the height of the Great Depression (1935) for Patou's former clients who could no longer afford his haute couture clothing line.

Patou remained a family-owned business until September 2001 when it was bought by P&G Prestige Beauté a division of Procter & Gamble Company, which also market perfumes for Jean Kerléo and Karl Lagerfeld.

Jean Patou died in Paris on 8 March 1936 of a fit of apoplexy at age 48.