MISS DIOR: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture

Brilliantly contrasting the Old World of wartime France with the hopeful New World epitomised by Christian Dior's New Look, the book revolves around his younger sister Catherine Dior, a Resistance heroine. Picardie explores the relationship between the visionary designer and his beloved sister who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. 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. 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. The final section of the book covers in depth the British royal family including a wonderful full page colour photograph of Princess Margaret wearing her Dior gown for her 21st birthday portrait in 1951, photographed by Cecil Beaton. Packed with archive and colour photographs, fashion shoots, illustrations, dress designs, the salon of the Worth Couture House Paris 1910 and even a doll with a shaved head made by a prisoner at Ravensbrück, contrasting the exhaustion, starvation and torment by thirst and abusive guards and snarling dogs with fashion and wealth. 438pp in large softback 17.4 x 23.5cm beautifully designed and extremely well illustrated throughout in both colour and black and white.