Miss Dior Quotes

“Paris was already renowned for its gay and lesbian subcultures – homosexuality had been decriminalised in 1791 at the time of the French Revolution – and Catherine and Christian were both working in the fashion business, a milieu that celebrated talented gay men. Many were well known to Christian: Edward Molyneux, for example, and Georges Geffroy, who began his career at the couture maison of Jean Patou before turning to interior design. Unlike his openly gay friends Jean Cocteau and Christian Bérard, Dior tended to be discreet about his private life – a consequence, perhaps, of his Catholic upbringing – but his sister was an integral part of it. When in 1938 he fell in love with an urbane young man named Jacques Homberg, he did not keep the relationship secret from Catherine.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Roughly one third of France’s male population between the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven died in the war.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“When a man wants to send you some flowers, always say to him: "My florist is Cartier".”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture

“There was no physical tenderness; but she always knew what to do if there was a problem.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“But such was her fortitude that she stayed at Les Naÿssès until the age of ninety, living there alone after Hervé’s death in September 1989. She died on 17 June 2008, having continued to work in her garden almost until the”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“A former soldier who came to Callian on one of these occasions told me how he hadn’t met Catherine before, but he introduced himself as a veteran of a more recent war, and asked her about her own experiences. She looked taken aback, he remarked, but did not turn away from him. ‘She simply said, “Aime la vie, jeune homme…”’ Love life … Catherine’s own love of life is evident in her garden, for to plant olive trees, vines”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Those few surviving friends and neighbours who knew Catherine tend to use the same word when they describe her: fort (strong).”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“On 15 August 1944, the same day that Allied troops landed on the nearby Mediterranean coast, and Catherine was deported from Paris to Ravensbrück, Ramonda took part in an operation to hold back a German convoy until the United States Army Air Forces could intervene. He”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“In early July 1944, at the same time as Catherine was arrested in Paris, the hilltop villages of Callian and Montauroux were surrounded by the Germans and searched, house by house, resulting in fifteen members of the Resistance being captured, interrogated and imprisoned.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“La Colle Noire took some time to sell, and passed through several hands before it was bought in 2013 by Christian Dior Parfums (now part of the mighty LVMH group, as is the Dior fashion business).”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Catherine was named the ‘moral heir’, responsible for preserving Christian Dior’s artistic heritage; a task that she took on with her characteristic loyalty, ensuring that his autobiography remained in print, and that his couture creations would be preserved in various archives, as well as supporting the establishment of the Dior museum in Granville.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“She was not a ‘femme de fashion’, but she was always elegant, said Laurent; always poised and well dressed.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“She was not a woman given to physical expressions of affection – although he felt that she cared deeply about the people she loved. One of Laurent’s lasting memories of Catherine is her scent, for she always wore Miss Dior – every day, whether she was working in the garden or harvesting her roses.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“He portrayed Catherine as reserved, discreet, but possessed of strength and great dignity. She never spoke of the war, he said, nor of personal matters; as Laurent observed, ‘the dictionary of Catherine Dior would not have many words within it.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“beautiful house of “La Colle”. With all the greatest tenderness, from your Catherine.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Wishing that a lucky star continues to shine for you and lights up this”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“The original ‘May’ gown is still kept in the Dior archives, and one of the knowledgeable curators suggests that it was inspired by Catherine, as another annual tribute to her love of flowers. But instead, I picture Catherine wearing a timeless grey dress at the Palais de Justice, making her case, standing her ground.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“There is nothing gayer than St Catherine’s day. Each workroom has its own orchestra … there is one continuous ball.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“On 25 November 1952, the annual celebration of St Catherine’s Day was held at the house of Dior, as was customary in the couture business. The French tradition, which continues at Dior, is for unmarried women, known as Catherinettes, to wear fancy-dress hats. ‘It is on St Catherine’s day that you should really visit”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Le Monde gives her name, but refrains from saying that Catherine was related to Christian Dior. The New Yorker article does not refer to Catherine at all; neither does The Times of London, which described the scenes that had been portrayed in court as having taken on ‘the aspect of an inferno such as that conjured up by Dante’.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Monsieur le president, I know what I’m saying. This affair cost people their lives, and now here they are, wrangling on behalf of these swine!’ Catherine’s outburst is at odds with her consistently measured demeanour during the course of the lengthy investigation”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Miss Dior is born of a dream, a compulsive desire to create perfection. Adored by her maker, she seems more than an artefact. But like the alchemist’s treasured doll in Hoffmann’s eerie tale of ‘The Sandman’, she is unable to take on a life of her own.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“She loved her brother, and applauded his success, but she did not need the protection or disguise of”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“But I have come to believe that Catherine was possessed of a rare grace and inner strength that would have protected her from the jostling fashion crowd, with their sharp”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“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.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“Instead, Catherine would become associated with the scent of Miss Dior, a perfume launched at the same time as the couture brand.”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

“For four years, we worked, we searched, like alchemists in pursuit of the philosopher’s stone. And then Miss Dior was born … Because, you see, for a perfume to ‘hold’, it must first be held for a long time in the hearts of those who created it. CHRISTIAN DIOR”
― Justine Picardie, Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture