He was born in Arles, Southern France, on 16/5/1951. He started designing historical costumes and fashion garments at an early age. He studied art history at the University of Montpellier (1969). In 1971 he enrolled in Sorbonne. While he was working on a thesis on 18th-century French costumes, he attended the museum curator program at the School of the Louvre Museum. Initially he worked with well known fashion houses, such as Hermes and Jean Patou . In 1987 he launched his own haute couture house, producing ready-to-wear clothes inspired by various cultures. In 1989 he started producing also jewelry, bags, shoes, glasses, scarves and ties and opened stores with high fashion clothes and accessories in Paris, Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, London, Geneva and Japan. He soon developed an imaginative, totally personal style, combining elements from different traditions, impressive designs, various fabrics, bold colors and unusual materials. At least until 2009, he dominated the world of fashion as one of the most important names, proposing new ideas and products each year. The period 2002/05 he was Creative Director at the Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci and in 2007 he began working with the cosmetics firm Avon , creating since then a range of fragrances for men and women. He designed costumes for opera, ballet, and theater. His costumes were exhibited in 2009 at the National Museum of Singapore. He became famous for his wedding gowns, the Air France uniforms (2005) and the interior design of hotels (Paris). He dressed famous artists and celebrities and has been awarded on several occasions. The GNO presented the ballet Cinderella [Aschenbrödel] (Zanella/Johann Strauss) with his own costumes, in a production of the Vienna State Ballet.