Watching “The New Look” on Disney+ was very entertaining, with superb direction and great actors! The fascinating story sent me down a rabbit hole wanting to learn more about the history of the characters and the times. France during the Nazi occupation, the fashion industry, and decorative textiles have always been an area of interest for Marla and me. The amazing story of Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine, and the hell she suffered during wartime was new to me. Coco Chanel’s collaboration with the Nazis and her abject antisemitism was a disgusting revelation. For those of you wanting to learn more I’ve included a number of illuminating YouTube videos which enlarge the story and add to an understanding of the period.

Christian Dior and his fashion drawings in the late 1940’s or early 1950. He died in 1957 at the early age of 52 of a heart attack.

This video does a very nice job telling the story of Christian Dior and his sister Catherine.

Catherine Dior’s card for the Ravensbruck Deported Association. She was arrested and tortured in Paris by the Gestapo for her resistance activities and deported to Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp in Germany in 1944. She was liberated near Dresden in 1945 and eventually returned to Paris terribly emaciated and sick.

The inhumane treatment of women prisoners in Ravensbruck. Tens of thousands of them were murdered, died of hunger and disease or were killed in medical experiments. The SS set up a provisional gas chamber at Ravensbrück in a hut next to the crematorium, where between 5,000 and 6,000 prisoners were gassed between late January and April 1945.

Ravensbruck memorials.

Justine Picardie’s 2021 book, “Miss Dior A Wartime story of Courage and Couture”, is an excellent telling of Catherine’s amazing story.

The “The New Look” told the story of Coco Chanel’s collaborating with the Nazis and her antisemitism. This video enlarges on the topic very well.

Juliette Binoche tells her story of playing Coco Chanel in “The New Look.”

I have a Chanel memory to share with you. Many years ago Marla and I were shopping at a Chanel boutique at the Ala Moana shopping mall in Honolulu, Hawaii. There were 2 or 3 Chanel stores in the mall. Marla was looking at a Chanel purse and close to purchasing… when a clerk said…”Excuse me”, took it from her hand and handed it to some Japanese tourists. At the time they were the big luxury buyers in Hawaii stores. Marla NEVER set foot in a Chanel boutique again!

A photo of Catherine’s partner, Herve Papillault de Charbonneries, Catharine Dior, Christian Dior, and their house keeper Madame Lefevre at Callian in 1947.

A 1948 photo in Vogue of Christian Dior working with a model.

Princess Margaret wearing Dior in 1951 at age 21.

Chateau de la Colle Noire in Montauroux near Callian was purchased by Christian Dior in 1951. Parfums Christian Dior purchased the property in 2013.

1957 photo of the fashion of Christian Dior for LIFE Magazine.

Catherine Dior and her life partner Herve des Charbonneries at their flower stand in the Les Halles market in Paris in 1957. After the war, Dior turned to her passion for flowers as a sort of lifeline to cope with the trauma that she suffered. Photo credit: Dior

Tending to the roses at Catherine’s home in Callian.

No city in the world displays commorative and historical plaques on the buildings like Paris! I found this plaque with flowers in the 6th arrondissement of Paris many years ago. “Marcel Martin died for the liberation of Paris on August 19, 1944.”

A plaque above a door in Paris describing the date “Christian Pineau” started the “Liberation Nord” Resistance Movement.

Watching “The New Look” we learn of the scarcity of decorative fabrics for the Paris fashion houses during WW2. The photo above shows me in the ’80’s with a French fabric mill during Heimtextil in Frankfurt, Germany. At that time only a few companies geared to the fashion industry sold also to home furnishing companies.

This is Marla looking very stylish at Heimtextil.

In 2022 we visited “La Galerie Dior” in Paris and really loved seeing the galleries of historic Dior fashion.

Peter Marino designed the gorgeous Dior museum.

One of the rooms in the Dior museum.

I had no idea of Catherine Dior and her brother, Christian Dior’s connection to Callian, France until recently. The commune of Callian is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in Southeastern France, about a 42 minute drive from Cannes. Marla and I first visited in 1991. We stayed in Cannes quite often with our family.

Marla and the Girls on a medieval lane in Callian in 1992.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did researching it. The history of the past is as important in understanding ourselves as the current moment. It is important to me that we do not sweep the past, even if unpleasant and uncomfortable, under the carpet.

Photos: Dick Gentry. Dior archives. Not to be used without permission.