Pierre Dormeuil was the heir to the textile firm Dormeuil, which was founded in 1842, and was later the owner. At the end of World War I, while a lieutenant in the French Army, Dormeuil served as an instructor to the US Army at Camp Meade, Maryland, where he came down with the Spanish Flu, but survived. In 1922, Dormeuil invented the world’s first ever resistant sportwear cloth called Sportex. The material was initially developed for “Gentleman” sports, such as riding, shooting and golf. He also preserved and further developed the important collection of pastels acquired by his father. In the 1920s Pierre raced at least twice in the Curzon Cup race on the Cresta Run in Saint Moritz, and in his youth he was a champion amateur boxer in France. Dormeuil later served as President of the French Chamber of Commerce in the 1950s.
France