Corinne Cobson, the French fashion designer whose self-assured clothing for women gained acclaim in the 1980s and ’90s, died on April 16 at a clinic in Saint-Cloud, a suburb of Paris. She was 62.
Her husband, Tanguy Loyzance, a photographer, said the cause was lung cancer.
Ms. Cobson’s designs were distinguished by their rock ’n’ roll-inspired edge but were nonetheless worn with ease. They frequently incorporated men’s-wear silhouettes and unexpected pairings of materials, like black leather, juxtaposed with fluid silk or buoyant feathers.
She also played with proportions at her runway fashion shows, for instance layering a chunky, oversized coat over trim trousers. Her clothes regularly revealed bare skin — an exposed midriff here, thighs below an extra-high hemline there — and suggested an empowered wearer in control of the alluring reveal.
As Woody Hochswender of The New York Times wrote in a 1991 review of one of her Paris fashion shows, her clothing “exploited the current fascination here with men’s style for women, a kind of tough-girl chic.”
The actress Pascale Ogier wore a black dress designed by Ms. Cobson in Éric Rohmer’s film “Full Moon in Paris” (1984).CreditLes Films du Losange
In spite of their spunk, Ms. Cobson’s clothes were not intimidating and were comfortable to wear.
“First essential thing: A woman needs to feel attractive, good in her skin and her clothing,” Ms. Cobson told the French online magazine Journal de Femmes in 2006. “She must not need to think about what she will have to wear with her outfit. For me, a garment needs to be very simple and sophisticated at the same time, well cut, in beautiful materials.”
The clothing also seemed to exude French style. When the Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette opened its short-lived American outpost in New York City in 1991, it carried Ms. Cobson’s clothes as well as labels like Thierry Mugler and Guy Laroche. Fans of Ms. Cobson’s brand included the French actresses Juliette Binoche and Vanessa Paradis.
Ms. Cobson’s influence can be seen in the work of designers like Isabel Marant and Nicolas Ghesquière, who early in his career was an intern for Ms. Cobson before working for her full time. At one point he lived in Ms. Cobson’s extra apartment, in the same building where Ms. Cobson and her husband lived at the time, near the Tuileries Garden.
Ms. Cobson was born Corinne Jacobson on Sept. 12, 1956, in Paris. Her parents, Elie and Jacqueline (Schneider) Jacobson, were the founders of Dorothée Bis, a successful brand of women’s wear that operated its own boutiques. The eldest of three sisters, Corinne joined the business as a teenager, but not for a precocious love of fashion.
“She didn’t want to go to school anymore,” Mr. Loyzance said in a phone interview. “So her dad said, ‘O.K., you don’t want to go to school? Tomorrow you’ll go to the shop.’ She went to the shop when she was 16 and she started to work.”
She showed talent and after a few years began designing for Dorothée Bis. Some of her pieces were memorably worn by the actress Pascale Ogier in Éric Rohmer’s film “Full Moon in Paris” (1984), including a slinky black sheath dress hardened with bold zipper detailing on thick shoulder straps.
Her own collection was introduced in 1987. The name Cobson was her own invention: a combination of letters from her first and last names.
“She wanted to be recognized as herself, not because she was the daughter of someone,” Mr. Loyzance said in a phone interview. “She was really proud of her mother, but she wanted to be recognized as Corinne Cobson.”
She took great delight, he recalled, when, several years after her brand was well established, the magazine editor Polly Mellen casually asked about her parents over lunch one day and was surprised to learn about her lineage.
Nonetheless, family was a priority. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Cobson moved her atelier from the bustling Rue de la Roquette to a large space at 213 Rue Saint-Honoré, which was close enough to her daughters’ school that she could meet them for lunch every day. After a few years, she passed the property over to a friend, Colette Roussaux, who opened the influential fashion boutique Colette there.
Ms. Cobson stepped away from her clothing line about a decade ago after she had a stroke. Her furniture brand, Corinne Cobson Home, is still in operation. Over the years, through licensing agreements, she designed a wide range of items, including cosmetics, sunglasses and lingerie. She also designed men’s wear for Cacharel for several years in the 1990s.
In addition to her husband Ms. Cobson is survived by their two daughters, Angèle and Rubis Loyzance, as well as her mother and two sisters, Carole and Laurane Jacobson.
