The Designer(109)

Carmel Snow was pushed out of Harper’s Bazaar in 1958, and went into semi-retirement. She was succeeded by her charismatic protégée, Diana Vreeland.

Christian Dior was to enjoy his phenomenal success for only ten years. He had his first heart attack just weeks after his debut show.

He continued to consult Madame Delahaye regularly, and to this day, his lucky charms are part of the Dior mystique. The shy man who wanted an exclusive shop in a quiet street became one of the giants of the fashion industry. He enjoyed his wealth, buying a fifteenth-century mill near Fontainebleau and then a chateau in Grasse, and lavishly restoring both.

But travel, work and overeating took their toll on his constitution. He had another heart attack a few years later, and then a third, which killed him in 1957 at the age of fifty-two. He died at the card table at the Grand Hotel in the glamorous spa town of Montecatini Terme in Tuscany, in the company of a handsome young man whom he had described to friends as the love of his life. It was a death he might have designed for himself.

His funeral in Paris was attended by multitudes, and his coffin was covered with 30,000 bunches of lilies, his favourite flower. He was succeeded by his young protégé, Yves Saint Laurent. Along with Chanel and Fath, Dior is regarded as one of the most important influences on modern fashion.

Readers who would like some insights into the personality of Christian Dior can do no better than look for copies of his own books: The Little Dictionary of Fashion (1954), Talking About Fashion (1954) and Christian Dior and I (1957).



My heartfelt thanks go to the many people who made this novel possible, especially to Sammia Hamer; also to Emilie Marneur and Sana Chebaro, who were so inspirational from the outset, and to Mike Jones, Gillian Holmes and Gemma Wain, who worked so hard on the manuscript.