Marie-France Pochna – Christian Dior: Destiny – La biographie autorisée – Flammarion

Christian Dior is renowned as the architect of the New Look, the epitome of elegance and beauty. But Dior's own life, privileged as it began in glittering Belle Époque France, was marked by loss and hardship through the Wall Street Crash and under the Occupation in World War II. From the extremes of both wealth and poverty, and using the talents he had developed amid the bohemian crowd of Paris's left bank-his eye for fashion, skill as an illustrator, and gift for friendship-Christian Dior emerged, dynamic and more resolute than ever, to found the Maison Dior.His groundbreaking fashions brought style and joy back to the streets of Paris and the world. Maison Dior became a landmark-like the Eiffel Tower-evoking an image of Parisian chic that everyone wanted. In just ten years, Dior created an empire that spanned the globe : his was one of the first Parisian couture houses to become a truly international brand. Throughout this meteoric rise, Christian Dior was surrounded by a fiercely lo