But while Christian became one of the most famous Frenchmen in the world – a celebrated name alongside Charles de Gaulle – the remarkable story of Catherine Dior has never been fully explored. The siblings’ stories are profoundly intertwined: in Occupied France, as Christian honed his couture skills, Catherine dedicated herself to the Resistance, ultimately being captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck, the only Nazi camp solely for women. For the rest of her life, Catherine never spoke of what she’d endured: the horrors that “ on ne put pas nommer”. Now, having said that, the reader will find the book an exceptional piece of work in bringing the early to late 20th century to life through vivid and clear descriptions.

The pictures that I have seen of Catherine in her post-war life show her at ease in linen trousers and shirts in Provence, or discreetly attired for work in Paris. The grey sea mist is thickening; the daylight seems to be dissolving into the fog; the glass of the playroom’s windows is darkening, the wind growing wilder. Certainly, she felt sufficiently strongly about Les Rhumbs to have supported the initiative that it should become a museum, attending its opening ceremony in 1997, and serving as its honorary president from 1999 until her death. In 1925 – when he was supposed to be hard at work in Paris as a student of political science, having been refused permission by his parents to study architecture – Christian found the time to design a new garden feature at Les Rhumbs, with arched trellises covered by roses surrounding a pool of water, complete with a small fountain.

When she arrived back in Paris in May 1945, having escaped a death march, she was so emaciated, her brother didn’t recognise her; she was too sick to eat the celebratory dinner he’d prepared for her. To bring this part of her life alive, she must rely on the experiences of other Resistance fighters, the work of other historians. The many pho­tos of dress­es designed dur­ing the peri­od and the celebri­ties who wore them bring some need­ed charm and col­or to the story. Picardie’s determination to create a connection between Catherine’s life and her brother’s work results in a truly egregious comparison between inmate portraits (drawn, at great personal risk, by a woman at one of the camps where Catherine was held) to photos of Christian with a fashion model and one of his dresses.

Probably the most interesting part of Miss Dior is the discussion about France, particularly Paris, during World War II. His sister was in the audience, breathing air that was heady with scent, as well as covetousness: his models wore the soon-to-be-launched Miss Dior, its formula inspired by the jasmine and roses Catherine adored (she was by now working as a florist).Christian’s life of beau­ty and roman­tic vision — and his abil­i­ty to stay out of trou­ble — con­trast­ed sharply with Catherine’s work gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion on the move­ment of Ger­man troops and war­ships and trans­mit­ting it to British intel­li­gence ser­vices. She explores what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and discovers the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction. 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. While full of import for them both, Catherine Dior’s kinship with the great fashion designer may well have been her least noteworthy trait.

All was peaceful, caressed by gentle sunlight; yet as I stood there, I wished with all my heart that I had met Catherine before her death, a decade previously. Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser).By 1905, Maurice and his cousin Lucien were running the flourishing company together, and its growing success was reflected in their social ascendancy.

When the French designer Christian Dior presented his first collection in Paris in 1947, he changed fashion forever. The answer comes a few pages later: ‘The outbreak of war caught us by surprise at Granville … At first our fräulein refused to go, since she thought, as everyone did, that the cataclysm was impossible. The lack of depth relative to Catherine Dior’s life can simply be chalked up to a lack of available detail. Dior’s “New Look” created a striking, romantic vision of femininity, luxury, and grace, making him―and his last name―famous overnight. The first of these, and closest to Christian’s heart, was launched alongside the New Look collection, and named in honour of his beloved sister Catherine: Miss Dior.Other than their familial relationship Catherine and Christian lived very different lives that only rarely affected one another. The juxtaposition of the terrible shadows and dazzling light is one of the great strengths of this book . Vincent had known Catherine – before moving to his job at the Dior archives in Paris, he worked for the museum in Granville – and they corresponded, whenever he had queries that she could answer about her brother.