Miss Dior

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The result is Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning as Picardie presents a woman who appeals beyond the boundaries of Planet Fashion . Yet for all the poignancy of these objects – in particular, the image of a youthful Grace Kelly, wearing an ethereal white Dior gown at the ball celebrating her engagement to Prince Rainier in 1956, unaware that she would die before growing old – Les Rhumbs remains a monument to a more distant past.

They had married in 1898, when Madeleine was a beautiful nineteen-year-old girl; Maurice Dior, at twenty-six, was already an ambitious young man, intent on expanding the fertiliser manufacturing business that his grandfather had set up in 1832.But after pages describing Christian Dior’s “New Look” designs, a costume party in Venice, a chapter detailing Princess Margaret’s fashion sense, and a rehashing of the Edward VII and Wallis Simpson scandal, readers can be forgiven for asking themselves what any of it has to do with Catherine Dior. I was so disappointed as I love Dior and the history of fashion and I even really love WW2 fashion but this book isn’t about any of those things!

This substantial late-nineteenth-century villa, positioned high above the Normandy town of Granville, overlooking the English Channel, was the childhood home of Christian Dior. Catherine looks well-dressed, but there is little evidence of the elaborate padding and traditional corsetry that were essential elements of Dior couture, which he dubbed “ephemeral architecture, dedicated to the beauty of the female body. Or is it simply as Dior described it in the program notes for the collection: “There are two principles on which the ‘Trompel’œil’ line is founded: one is to give the bust prominence and breadth, at the same time as respecting the natural curve of the shoulders; the other principle leaves the body its natural line but gives fullness and indispensable movement to the skirts.

Miss Dior is a story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal, roses and repression, and how the polished surface of fashion conceals hidden depths. DAILY TELEGRAPH Miss Dior explores the relationship between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. As Christian himself wrote in his memoir: ‘My early years were those of a very good, very well-brought-up little boy, watched over by vigilant fräuleins, and seemingly quite incapable of mingling in the hurly-burly of life. 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.

The brisk sea breeze is cold, buffeting the roses, their bruised, delicate petals falling to the damp earth, like confetti after a wedding. The book is very well illustrated throughout and though we will never truly know Catherine, Justine Picardie has captured her essence, which is what I think she set out to do.Therefore, I would recommend this book if you want to start reading more about this side of history - intriguing and horrifying, but these women were courageous, fearless and true heroines. The author travelled with her husband to see the places associated with Catherine when writing the book. Miss Dior explores the relationship between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. At least not until now, when Picardie delved into fam­i­ly archives, exhumed old his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, and stud­ied the diaries and mem­oirs of peo­ple who knew the qui­et­ly coura­geous, soft-spo­ken, elu­sive woman.