Marie-France de Paris

Marie-France Rousseau was a couturier known as Marie-France de Paris, or sometimes Marie-France de Montréal. A native of Belgium, she lived in Paris for some time before moving to Montreal in 1952. With Jacques de Montjoye, she was behind the project to organize a professional association of fashion designers that eventually became the Association of Canadian Couturiers. A founding member of the Association, in 1954 she took part in its first fashion shows at Montreal’s Ritz-Carlton hotel and the Pierre Hotel in New York City. She continued to participate in all of the Association’s shows for several years, and also ran a salon at 1012 Sherbrooke Street West until 1960.