{"id":33512,"date":"2024-02-14T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=259735"},"modified":"2024-02-14T14:12:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T13:12:52","slug":"the-new-look-who-was-the-real-catherine-dior","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-new-look-who-was-the-real-catherine-dior\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Look: who was the real Catherine Dior?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonny Wilkes explores the quietly extraordinary life of Catherine Dior, who survived concentration camps and went on to cement the legacy of her brother\u2019s fashion house\u2026 <\/p>

By Jonny Wilkes\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 14 February 2024 at 11:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Catherine may not be the most famous member of the Dior family, by any means: her brother Christian<\/a> founded one of the top fashion houses in the world. But hers was a quietly extraordinary life, from joining the Resistance against the Nazis during the Second World War, and surviving concentration camps to helping cement the Dior legacy.<\/p>\n

You can see Catherine Dior depicted by Maisie Williams in Apple TV+\u2019s series The New Look<\/em><\/a>, released on 14 February.<\/p>\n

What was Catherine Dior\u2019s early life like?<\/h3>\n

Born on 2 August 1917 as the youngest of the five Dior children, she was originally named Ginette, but became better known as Catherine. Her earliest memories would have been of a privileged upbringing; her wealthy parents lived in a villa in the Normandy town of Granville.<\/p>\n

When still a teenager, however, Catherine\u2019s life changed. In the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929<\/a> and Great Depression<\/a>, her father\u2019s fertiliser business collapsed, around the same time her mother died. The teenage Catherine moved to Paris to live with Christian, making money by selling hats and gloves, until the Second World War broke out and she headed to the south of France and grew vegetables to sell.<\/p>\n

Was Catherine Dior involved in the French Resistance?<\/h2>\n
\"Catherine\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Catherine Dior (Maisie Williams) in The New Look<\/em>. (Picture by Apple TV+)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In November 1941, Catherine went to buy a radio. It was a risky move: France was under the control of either Nazi occupation or the Vichy regime<\/a>, and she wanted to listen to broadcasts from the exiled Free French government. In the shop, she met a man named Herv\u00e9 des Charbonneries, and although he was married with three children, the two reportedly fell instantly in love.<\/p>\n

Charbonneries was also in the French Resistance, and Catherine was eagerly recruited. Under the codename \u2018Caro\u2019, she spent the next two and a half years inside the F2, a British-sponsored Franco-Polish intelligence network, gathering information for Polish and British intelligence. Her clandestine work eventually took her back to Paris, where she again stayed with Christian, but this increased the risks of being caught.<\/p>\n

On 6 July 1944, Catherine was arrested by Gestapo operatives and tortured for information. She never said a word.<\/p>\n

What happened after Catherine Dior was arrested by the Gestapo?<\/h3>\n

Catherine was on one of the last prisoner trains out of Paris before the capital was liberated in August 1944. As his sister endured the brutal conditions of that journey, Christian frantically pleaded with his contacts for help and almost succeeded: Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling arranged to have Catherine released into his care, but was just too late to stop the train.<\/p>\n