The House of Dior's authorized biography of "The King of Fashion", fully updated with chapters on his spirituality, personal relationships, and a contemporary perspective on his legacy.

In 1947 when Christian Dior showed his spinning skirt with a pinched waist, a hat tipped over one eye, he became an instant celebrity. The "new look" that he offered to women was quintessentially Parisian-feminine, playful, voluptuous, the perfect mixture of fanciful and elegant.
Dior brought back a certain joie de vivre that nobody dared believe in, to an era that was bogged down in post-war hardship. It was the great hour of the Café Society: Champagne cocktails, budding fashion designers, and an aristocratic élite still basking in the glory of the nineteenth century. But it was Americans, fascinated by Europe of the past, who were the artisans of his success. Dior understood it immediately, and was the first to know how to market this tradition of taste and elegance particular to France.
Dior drew inspiration from the artists and musicians who surrounded him: Jean Cocteau, Francis Poulenc, Max Jacob, and Maurice Sachs among others. In this biography, hundreds of testimonies and intimate journals reveal a sometimes solitary and timid man, who was a generous human being, funny to the point of buffoonery, but profoundly private.

Marie-France Pochna teaches fashion and luxury industry management in Paris, at the MBA-Luxury Management program at l'ESSEC in France, and at the London College of Fashion in England. She has published books on Gianni Agnelli and Nina Ricci, and is the recognized authority on Dior.