prfm02

The world of fashion has always had the aura of richness. Most of the decks express that feeling in some way or the other. The deck here below has a black background. This feature, by itself, gives a deck a luxureous look. The use of gold(like) colour to outline the suitcolours enhances that look. Some of the other decks, like the Lanvin deck on page 1, have solid gold edges. That works even better!


At first sight the deck shows great resemblance with a Russian deck, that was published in 1967 as Palekh and also had a black background. The designs of the courts however are different and there were no illustrations on the aces in the Palekh deck.

The indices are both French and Russian. The Russian connection lies in the fact that the deck was used to promote the "Tsar" fragrance by Van Cleef & Arpels. This perfume was first launched in 1989, so this deck was probably published in that same year.

That assumption is correct, but it was not the first publication of this fantasy pattern.
Editions J.C. Dusserre had already published this deck in 1978 as "Jeu de 54 Cartes de Luxe". In that deck one of the jokers is signed by the artist: Henri Simoni.