Claude Montana (29 June 1947 in Paris) is a French fashion designer. His company, The House of Montana, founded in 1979, went bankrupt in 1997. Early life and Design career Born in Paris in 1947 to a Catalan father and a German mother, Montana began his career by designing papier-mâché jewelry covered with rhinestones. Later, he discovered leather and the complex techniques associated with it, eventually becoming a leading force in leather. His first fashion show took place in 1976. He attracted attention the following year for his leather coats and in 1978 was among the most extreme in presenting the broad shoulders that were introduced for the fall of that year, joining Thierry Mugler in showing massively-shouldered retro sci-fi looks at the end of the seventies, both designers also using the most influential footwear designer of the time, Maud Frizon, for the shoes in their collections. Like Mugler and like Azzedine Alaïa and a few others of this period, Montana's designs displayed a longing for styles of the 1940s and '50s. He was an avid colorist and favored blue, red, metallic, and neutral tones, in luxurious materials such as cashmere, leather and silk. He started his own company, The House of Montana, in 1979, and quickly became a darling of 1980s high fashion along with Thierry Mugler, who also favored aggressive shapes and strong colours. Through 1986, he would continue to be associated with exaggerated shoulder pads, even declaring in 1985, "Shoulders forever," but in 1987 he began to soften his style, with some moves in that direction as early as 1984, and in 1988 he presented much-reduced shoulders and even shoulderless tops in an architectural but softened spring collection that focused on standaway waists, collars, and jacket fronts, the lines reminding fashion historian Bill Cunningham of the sculpture of Jean Arp. By fall of 1988, he had moved in most of his garments to a completely natural shoulder while still maintaining a commanding line, now given to a geometric trapeze shaping that extended even to wide-hemmed pants, a silhouette he would focus on through the first half of 1989. At the end of the eighties, he, along with Romeo Gigli, contributed to a trend toward dramatic collar treatments on the now-natural shoulders of his garments. In the earliest 1990s, Montana returned somewhat to futuristic looks, this time joining a trend toward sixties Space Age revival, with sharply tailored