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Miss Dior

Miss Dior

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The story describes the close relationship between Christian and his youngest sister, Catherine—a relationship that lasted throughout their lives. Christian’s belief in clairvoyance, and the bonds between siblings draw a parallel with Picardie’s own experience of losing her sister, Ruth, to breast cancer in 1997. Their lives diverged even more sharply when she was cap­tured by the Gestapo and impris­oned in Ravens­bruck and then a series of labor camps and final­ly forced to endure one of the infa­mous death march­es of 1945. As for the uncertainty regarding Catherine’s relationship with the Miss Dior dress: a clue may lie in the name of the collection where the gown first appeared, which Christian himself baptized the “Trompe-l’œil” line.

And despite Madeleine Dior’s strictness with the children, Catherine made a brief yet intriguing reference to her mother ‘closing her eyes’ and giving them the freedom to create two flowerbeds, one in the shape of a tiger, and the other a butterfly.It is surprisingly quiet this morning in the grounds, perhaps because of the damp weather, although the museum has several dozen visitors who have come to see a new exhibition, dedicated to Princess Grace of Monaco, and displaying clothes designed for her by Christian Dior. Justine Picardie's journey takes her to Occupied Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbruck.

At first, as I began to explore Catherine’s history, and realized that she was more or less invisible to Christian’s acolytes, I felt angry on her behalf. The first of these, and closest to Christian’s heart, was launched alongside the New Look collection, and named in honour of his beloved sister Catherine: Miss Dior. The dead princess walks through her palace in Monaco on the video screens, beckoning towards her lost life, as if in an uncanny fairytale. Her strong belief in freedom and democracy led to her becoming a member of the French resistance during World War II. Until 1949, after all, he’d had been living with a phantom of sorts, in the form of his younger sister, Catherine.Obviously, her story and Christian's are intertwined and I liked the way in which this was dealt with in the book. Instead, she appears to be wearing her clothes simply to get on with life, rather than as a means to display her brother’s consummate artistry. The passionate art of his couture therefore resists being fully dismantled, and examined as a logical, rational craft. This is the story of a ghost who walked into my life on a sunlit Sunday morning in early summer, and would not let go of me, however much I might wish, at times, to be free of her. The harrowing wartime years of Christian Dior's sister woven against the pre and post war glamour of Paris is all the more moving for that.

Now, having said that, the reader will find the book an exceptional piece of work in bringing the early to late 20th century to life through vivid and clear descriptions. Justine Picardie’s new biography, “Miss Dior,” claims to be about Catherine Dior, the youngest sister of fashion designer Christian Dior, but she is missing from much of it. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.After my tour of the exhibition, I have been granted permission to spend the remainder of the day writing in what was the Dior children’s playroom in the garden.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

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