Rochas Goes Home

When Marcel Rochas, a celebrated Parisian dressmaker, opened a branch shop in Manhattan last September, merchandisers spoke of his "business daring." No other important Parisian had ever dared sell retail in Manhattan in competition with stores like Saks-Fifth Avenue which bought from him wholesale in Paris. The sort of ladies who made up M. Rochas' customers babbled incoherently of his sleek hair and out-of-door complexion. Last week the ladies were back buying at Saks-Fifth Avenue and talking of somebody else's outdoor complexion, and again there was no branch of an important Paris dressmaker in Manhattan.

M. Rochas' dresses were seized by Customs officers in December, but M. Rochas was already back in Paris. According to the indictment, what he had apparently done was to import both dresses and mannequins, and the mannequins were told to say the dresses belonged to them; thus M. Rochas avoided the duty. Last week on the door of the pompous Rochas shop on East 6th Street was a receivership notice. Left to answer to a conspiracy indictment for smuggling was only the shop's manager, M. Guy de Font-Joyeuse, whom the mannequins call "Papa."

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