Miss Dior

A Story of Courage and Couture (from the acclaimed author of Coco Chanel)

Justine Picardie

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571356546
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Biographies

Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser).

*The New Look, a new Apple TV drama series starring Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior - in a role inspired by Justine Picardie's Miss Dior - is out now*

'Exceptional . . . Miss Dior is so much more than a biography. It's about how necessity can drive people to either terrible deeds or acts of great courage, and how beauty can grow from the worst kinds of horror.'
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. Justine Picardie's journey takes her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück.

Tracing the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and sisterhood. She discovers what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and reveals the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction.

*A beautiful, full colour package featuring over 200 archival images.*

'Extraordinary . . . Picardie uses her investigative reporting skills . . . the result is Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning . . . Catherine's story shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help liberate France.'
SUNDAY TIMES

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Into the Rose Garden
• The Garden Maze
• Through the Looking Glass
• Shadowland
• Rue Royale
• Rue de la Pompe
• Darkness Falls
• The Abyss
• The Underworld
• The Homecoming
• Palais de Glace
• Magical Thinking
• The New Look
• Rising from the Ashes
• The Flower Girl
• Princess Dior
• Taking a Stand
• La Colle Noire
• No Rose without a Thorn
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on Sources
• Bibliography
• Picture Credits
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright