Claire Haddad - Canadian Designer

Fishstique

Fishstique

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I just picked up a Claire Haddad dress at an estate sale for 5 bucks - a very 60's, psychedelic, fuccy maxi dress - I didn't know much about her except she was a 60's canadian designer. After coming home I see her stuff can sell quite well - but theres not much of it out there.

Has anyone sold any of her designs before?

Sorry I dont have a pic yet, its still in the trunk of my car!
 
um, fuccy = fuzzy, after a few chardonnays. And by fuzzy, or fuccy, I mean velour-y. Crispy velour. Hard to describe! Especially since I dont have it here - I realized my husband just took the car, with the dressand my other estate sale finds in it, down to Detroit tonight, I hope the border guards dont ask him whats in the trunk... cause he has no idea.

'Sir, you said you had nothing to declare... yet here is some bizarre psychedelic fuzzy muumuu, an 80s beach cover-up that should have been left behind in a Duran Duran video, and a bolero jacket with shoulder pads so big it could have been worn to the superbowl. Oh, and a tablecloth that may or may not be Marimekko'.
 
Simple, he should just explain that he's delivering costumes for the official Canadian Olympic "Hungry Like the Wolf" disco luncheon team. :D
 
I am not sure when Claire Haddad started in the fashion business but she was at her best in the 1960s. The Seneca Fashion Resource Centre at Seneca College in Toronto has her archives including a lot of her leading pieces done for fashion shows as well as the usual archival material - sketches etc. Claire Haddad donated it to them when she retired from the business (I think it was in the mid 1990s that she retired). I have had a couple of her pieces go through my hands but I find her work erratic. Some pieces are wonderful while others border onto the mundane. I have found some of her pieces for sale in the past on websites for high asking prices but I don't know what the real selling price is of anything. She is not prolific enough to maintain a demand from collectors as far as I know, so I think the market is a bit of the luck of the draw.
 
Thanks Jonathan - I knew you'd have something to say on Ms Haddad! I'll post a pic of it once its uploaded and maybe you lovely folks can give me a guesstimate as to what to price it at (on Etsy).

It looks like something someone would have worn to The Party (you know, the Peter Sellers movie... birdynumnums... num num)
 
Hello there - just opened this account to respond to your post. Claire Haddad is my grandmother, and my mother and I have just begun the process of scanning old magazine clippings and will be posting them to a wordpress blog I just opened. We did transcribe one book article so far I have posted on clairehaddad.wordpress.com (the pic is of her from a magazine article - it seems it grabbed the wordpress gravatar) I am just poking around the interwebs to see what is out there about her already, not much it seems. It was about 1985 she retired. If you have any questions you can ask me or I can forward you directly to her - she is an energetic 87 now.
 
I missed this thread when it was first posted. Would love to see the "fuzzy" dress, Fishtique. Welcome to the Forums, Hala. Look forward to learning more about your grandmother.
 
Hala, the video is wonderful. I so enjoyed listening to your grandmother Claire Haddad, her stories and advice (ignore the press, lol) and discussing the importance of the Order of Canada pin, and how it should be worn. I look forward to learning more about this remarkable woman.

Fishstique, congratulations on a terrific find. And I think that you should be a comedic screen writer as well (that scenario with hubby at the border would make a great TV pilot). ;)
 
I still have the Claire Haddad dress... I'll put up pics soon. I never sold it because it required some re-stitching in the hem.... and we all know what happens to those 'project' dresses, ha. Back of the closet!

And Laura, you're close - actually I write commercials for a living, not TV shows. Due to my 30 second attention span...
 
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