Seamstress Christine Platz spent almost four decades working under each of Christian Dior’s successors, from Yves Saint Laurent to John Galliano.
Platz’s entrance as a petite main, at age 20, coincided with Saint Laurent’s final collection for the house. “There was a real family atmosphere, but during collections, my goodness, was it tense,” she recalled, tugging at the bow of her immaculate peach silk blouse, one of a number of garments she whipped up for herself since retiring in 1999.
Platz had learned about Dior from reading fashion magazines as a teenager, while growing up in the center of France. But, nothing, she said, could have prepared her for the frenzy of activity in Dior’s ateliers.
“I’ve always said it takes at least 10 years to become a qualified seamstress at a house like Dior,” observed Platz, who would often work through the night to get collections finished on time. Skirts, she stressed, would be pleated by hand, and dresses hid complex grids of muslin and corsetry.
Platz’s promotion to second in charge of the flou atelier in 1972 granted her access to the studio, where she was allowed to construct muslin mock-ups.
“It was a joy, as it meant playing a role in the creation of garments,” said Platz. It also gave her exposure to clients in the salon, a privilege workers in the atelier did not have.
Gianfranco Ferré, she said, was the most pleasurable designer to work for, being extremely calm and disciplined in his execution of the collections. “He had this very imposing stature that was reflected in his clothes,” she said, recalling the house’s shift in style to big proportions and exuberant bows. Ferré’s arrival also took fashion shows outside the house’s headquarters for the first time, to the Grand Hotel.
She described Galliano’s arrival, in 1997, as nothing short of a revolution.
“With Galliano, you don’t work at nine in the morning but nine in the evening,” she joked. “He’s a night owl.”
Galliano’s eccentric appearance and outlandish demands came as a shock, she admitted. “He once made a huge rip in the skirt of one mousseline gown I’d been working on, because he thought it looked better frayed that way,” she recalled with a startled laugh. “But I saw his style trickle down onto the street and figured he must have known what he was doing.”
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Another time, she was surprised when he asked her to place a pocket at the bottom of a skirt, of all places. But she soon adapted.
“Mr. Galliano has big capacities and very theatrical ways,” she said. “He was so shy and so respectful that he was a delight to work with, to the point where we’d feel terribly dismayed if we hadn’t seemed to capture what he was looking for.”
Platz cited a dress she made for Galliano’s first collection, just a couple of years before her retirement, as the most challenging creation of her career: a corseted lilac bustier ballgown cascading with delicate tulle ruffles. Each ruffle was hand-sewn and measured only 4 centimeters in width. “It took around 300 hours to make it. Very tiring work,” recalled Platz. “But still, I went to work every day with joy in my heart.”