In the first episode of The New Look, Todd A. Kessler’s glossy new Apple TV+ period drama charting the epic rivalry between Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, we meet not only the feuding designers (as played by a grizzled Ben Mendelsohn and a glamorous Juliette Binoche) but also those in their illustrious circle, including couturier Lucien Lelong (John Malkovich), his then design assistant Pierre Balmain (Thomas Poitevin), and Chanel’s German lover, the Nazi-affiliated Hans Günther von Dincklage (Claes Bang). But, there’s one character who quickly emerges as one of the most fascinating: Christian Dior’s heroic younger sister, Catherine Dior.
We meet her in 1943, three years into the Nazi occupation of Paris, as she, embodied by Maisie Williams, is accosted by officers who demand to see her papers. When she flees, they chase her and pin her against a wall—only for her to then turn the tables on them. Two members of the French Resistance suddenly appear and shoot the soldiers, and Catherine, startlingly composed, escapes with them. You realize that she was never the damsel in distress—she’d simply set a trap that the Nazis walked into. She is a woman who, despite all the chaos around her, seems to be fully in control of her own destiny.
But who was the real Catherine Dior? What was her life actually like during the Second World War? And how did she go on to influence the work of her brother? As the show continues to air, we present a full breakdown below.
Born in 1917 in Granville, in northwestern France, Catherine grew up the youngest of five children born to industrialist Maurice Dior and his wife, Madeleine. Maurice managed a firm which specialized in producing fertilizer, and grew the business into a success, soon moving his growing family into a grand villa. (Their candy-colored mansion now houses the Musée Christian Dior.) However, tragedy was just around the corner: Madeleine died in 1931 and, soon after, an economic downturn and failed real estate ventures decimated the family’s fortune. Maurice’s remaining assets were liquidated, the company sold, and the family forced to vacate their stately home in favor of a dilapidated farmhouse in Provence. There, Catherine supported the family by growing green beans and peas; she would remain green-fingered her whole life.
By the late 1930s, both Catherine and Christian were living in Paris, but when the Second World War broke out, they returned to the south of France and grew vegetables that they sold in Cannes. It was then that Catherine’s life changed forever—she met Hervé des Charbonneries, a passionate member of the French resistance. Despite him being a married father of three, as well as more than a decade older than her, Catherine fell in love with Hervé, and soon joined the Resistance herself.
She used her brother’s Paris apartment to host underground Resistance meetings, and things went well for a time, but then, in 1944, she was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. Remarkably, she never betrayed any of her comrades. The Nazis then dispatched her to a French prison and, later, a series of concentration camps: Ravensbrück, Torgau, Abteroda, and, finally, Markkleeberg in 1945. Christian repeatedly tried but failed to arrange her release. As the Allies approached, remaining prisoners were sent on a death march but, somehow, Catherine managed to escape and eventually returned to Paris. She later testified against her torturers and was awarded several medals for her bravery, including the Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre, the Combatant’s Cross, and the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom.
Not long after Catherine and Christian were reunited, the latter presented his era-defining New Look collection in 1947. As attendees took in the wasp-waisted jackets and frothy skirts, they could also detect a sweet scent in the air—Miss Dior, the maison’s new fragrance, which had been diffused around the room. It’s believed that it was named after Catherine—the story goes that while Christian was in a meeting with his colleague, Mizza Bricard, Catherine entered the room and Bricard exclaimed, “Ah, here! Miss Dior!”
Catherine, however, had little interest in fame or fortune. She lived the rest of her life away from the spotlight on a farm in Provence, and sold blooms alongside Hervé des Charbonneries at the flower market in Paris’s Les Halles. Upon her brother’s untimely death in 1957 at the age of 52, she devoted herself to preserving his legacy, carefully cataloging the contents of his home and serving as the honorary president of the Musée Christian Dior until her own passing in 2008, aged 90.
While many Christian Dior devotees may still not know Catherine’s name, the house of Dior has not forgotten the impact she had on him; she remains a frequent muse for the maison’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who references both her fierce modernity and rebelliousness, as well as her love of flowers across the brand’s designs, campaigns, and runway shows. With the release of The New Look, Catherine is sure to win more fans—and it feels like only a matter of time before a standalone big-screen biopic is given the green light.