Antoni Cierplikowski, commonly known as Antoine de Paris, was born in Sieradz. Endowed with talent and the courage to break accepted conventions, he became a well-known stylist to Parisian upper classes and artistic circles open to change. Thanks to him, artistic hairdressing became part of the widely understood decorative arts.

As part of the documentation of Polish cultural heritage in France, the POLONIKA Institute in 2018 commissioned source research related to a Polish hairdresser from Paris, namely Antoni Cierplikowski from Sieradz (1884-1976).

This is a figure relatively little known in Poland, despite the fact that he was a creator of hairdressing and an extraordinary figure of the artistic life of the French capital and beyond. The material collected will make it possible to verify to a large extent the knowledge of Antoni Cierplikowski and his actual achievements in hairdressing and fashion. It will also demonstrate his active participation in the artistic life of Paris in the interwar and post-war years, illustrate the Parisian background and identify Cierplikowski's companions from the worlds of aristocracy, art and business. An important source of information is his diary published in Paris in 1963 under the title 'J'ai coiffe le monde entier' ['I combed the whole world'].

A search conducted by Dr Anna Łaniewska-Szablowska in Paris made it possible to collect new source and iconographic material. The research material will be available in the digital resources of the Institute Polonica.