Miss Dior. The sad and little-known story of Catherine Dior, the discreet sister of the great couturier

He adored her. He would do anything for her. Without him, she probably wouldn’t have continued to design these dresses that Paris raved about in the last century. Series: New lookAired on Apple TV+, it looks back at the rise of the creator (played by Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn) in the 1940s and 1950s during the Nazi occupation and post-war period. He also explores the lives of those around him and the way the war affected them, from Coco Chanel to Pierre Balmain, including Christian Dior’s beloved sister Catherine.

He was born in 1917, twelve years after his brother. However, the bond between them is strong. Locked up in a Nazi labor camp during the war, Musa, a flower seller in Paris’ Halles and the first “Miss Dior” Catherine Dior led a discreet but no less difficult life. And has always been close to the creator.

The story begins in Granville, Normandy. Christian and Catherine’s parents, Alexandre Maurice Louis Dior and Marie-Madeleine Dior, lived a wealthy life thanks to the fertilizer and bleach business in which the father of the family had made his fortune. The Diors live next to the English Channel in the Les Rumbes villa, which is located in the heights of the city. The building is impressive with its portico, its flowery gardens and unobstructed views of the coast. The couple’s first four children, including Christian, the second, grew up there surrounded by servants. But Catherine, the youngest, will live a Parisian childhood. Dior’s family moved into a huge Haussmann-style apartment in the 16th arrondissement at 9 rue Louis-David seven years before his birth in 1910. A Norman villa would be a second home for them, a vacation home where they could enjoy the freshness. air.

Catherine Dior, dear sister

Catherine Dior received a hard education devoid of love. While he stayed with their parents, Christian Dior frequented the Parisian cultural scene and opened an art gallery with his friend Jacques Bonjean. But their relationship remains special. both share the same sensibility for art and the same love of flowers and gardening that they do in Grainville. The following years, however, would be difficult years. In May 1931, their mother, Madeleine Dior, died suddenly at the age of fifty-two, and their brother, Bernard, was hospitalized for schizophrenia. due to poor investments during accident In 1929, in the stock market, Maurice Dior found himself ruined within days and was forced to sell his companies. The father of the family leaves the Parisian apartment and settles with Catherine in the town of Calian, Var, 800 kilometers from Paris. The young girl lives in uncomfortable conditions, where poverty prevails. When he was 18, Christian Dior invited him to join him in the capital to work with him. Under the same roof, they experience great freedom together.

But the dark storm of World War II rumbles in the distance, then falls on Paris. The brother and sister have to be separated for some time. Catherine returns to her father, and Christian is mobilized, joining the 47th Engineer Company. Released from his obligations the following year, he returned to the still besieged capital. Working at the Lucien Lelong fashion house, he will help his little sister in the south financially, at least as much as he can. During this time of the war, Catherine Dior lived there without electricity or amenities, cultivating a few green beans and peas on the land surrounding her father’s house for a living. Difficult arrangements that are, however, a far cry from the hell that awaits him.

Catherine Dior, Resistance Fighter

In the winter of 1941, Catherine Dior wanted to buy a radio, wanting to listen to General De Gaulle on the BBC. She falls in love with Hervé Papiol de Charbonnier, a salesman of electrical appliances, with whom she begins a relationship. He is part of the Resistance and he follows its beliefs by becoming involved in the Franco-Polish F2 network. In 1944, many arrests took place on the Cote d’Azur. the young woman received a coded message telling her to return to Paris where she would be safer. Catherine Dior then used her brother’s apartment at 10 Royal Street for two years to host members of her network. His role is that of a courier, gathering and storing intelligence on German troops on the streets of Paris. A dangerous mission that one summer evening will change his life forever, giving rise to Christian Dior’s absolute nightmare of losing his little sister.

It’s July 6, 1944, and Catherine Dior meets a member of the network near the Place du Trocadéro. On the way, the Gestapo suddenly stopped him, blindfolded him and took him to their headquarters at 180 rue de la Pompe. The designer’s sister will be taken there for a few days, ordered to reveal what she knows. He does not surrender and will be deported to Germany. Christian Dior, informed, will try his best to get him off the train before it leaves the area. In vain. The resistance fighter was sent to the women’s concentration camp in Drance, then Ravensbrück. At the end of the war, he will be liberated near Dresden. Repatriated, very thin and emaciated – Maisie Williams had to lose 12 kilograms for these scenes – Catherine Dior returned with her brother. He helps displaced families find their loved ones and get involved with the Resistance Foundation. For his efforts, he would receive the Combat Cross, the Combatant’s Cross, and the Legion of Honor. He rarely talks about these dark years.

In line New look, the plot begins just before Catherine’s arrest. We see how the designer struggles body and soul to free his little sister, using all his contacts, all his means, taking all the risks. Unable to do this, he despairs, but consults a clairvoyant (a lover of mysticism, he often saw them), Madame Delahaye, who assures him: sewing projects. So he, who had not sketched for weeks, timidly accepted the offer of textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac, who offered him six million francs to open his own house. The project is progressing, but Christian Dior finds it difficult to work without his sister. Catherine’s return at the end of the war inspired. two years later, in 1947, Christian Dior presented his first collection, 30 Avenue Montaigne.

Catherine Dior, the muse

In the same year, the couturier created his first perfume, but could not find a name for it. One day, when Dior’s muse and couture artistic advisor Mitsa Brickard was in the latter’s office, Catherine Dior entered. Mitza exclaims. “Hey, there’s Miss Dior!” Then Christian Dior enthusiastically replies: “Miss Dior. There it is, that’s my perfume.” For the couturier, the association is perfect, as the fragrance and its green jasmine scent come from her sister’s favorite flowers, built on memories of the garden in Grenville and their shared love of flowers.

Running away from the spotlight and journalists’ microphones, Catherine Dior gradually fades behind her brother’s victories. He will be a florist in Les Halles, with his companion Hervé, whom he found after returning from the camps. Together, the couple will return to Kalia, where the former resistance fighter devotes himself fully to the gardening he so cherishes. The roses planted by him are also used by Christian Dior for Miss Dior perfume. It was there that he learned of the sudden death of his brother Christian Dior in 1957. He made it a point of honor to keep his legacy alive, especially through the Villa Grenville, which was turned into a Dior museum. He in turn died in 2008 in Kalyan after bringing back the last of his collection of flowers. So Catherine Dior will live in the shadows, full of conviction and humility. A life on which the camera lens deserves to focus for a few moments, or at least a few scenes. Shedding light on his character, New look thus paying homage to his history, the role he played in his brother’s life and therefore in the history of fashion.

“The New Look”, trailer.