Christian Dior’s cosmopolitan muse, the formidable Mitzah Bricard, has such a reputation that the house’s current couturier, John Galliano, is in thrall to her mystique as described by Dior in his memoirs. “Have you gotten to the bit where Mr. Dior says she never wore any knickers?” asked Galliano. “She was the last of the demi-horizontale. She was fabulous!”
Born in Paris on Nov. 12, 1900, under the name Germaine Louise Neustadt, Bricard married twice: first to Romanian diplomat Alexandro Biano, then, in 1941, following his death, to Hubert Bricard, president of B.L.B. Laboratories. Nobody knows at what point or why she decided to change her first name to Mitzah.
Bricard entered Dior as a pattern maker in December 1946. No typical working girl, the rare bird resided at the Ritz, rarely arriving at Avenue Montaigne before noon — and never without her turban, pearls and stilettos.
“Bricard is one of those people, increasingly rare, who make elegance their sole reason for being,” Dior wrote in his autobiography, “Christian Dior and I.”
The designer would rely upon Bricard to approve an outfit, or spice it up with that choice accessory that she’d furnish on the spot from a handful of hat straws, say, or by improvising with the panther print silk square forever tied at her wrist.
“From time to time, Madame Bricard emerges from her hatboxes, sails in magnificently, gives one definitely adverse comment, condemns an unfortunate fabric with a look or suddenly plumps for a daring color,” Dior wrote.
Under the admiring eye of Dior, panther prints and the color lilac, two of Bricard’s signatures, were adopted as house codes.
When workers grumbled about Madame Bricard’s grand airs and incessant bravado, the designer would counter: “Would you prefer to see her in another couture house? I’d rather have her here.” And Bricard would continue making her audacious demands.
Retail legend Stanley Marcus fell victim to her innate taste when enquiring if Bricard had a preference for any florist in particular.
“Certainly,” she purred. “Cartier.”
Not much can be found about Bricard’s life following Christian Dior’s death in 1957. She died in Paris 20 years later, on Dec. 13, 1977.