The Model: Victoire
Christian Dior’s thirst for all things new didn’t stop at clothes: He even shook up the industry’s traditional perception of fashion models.
“I was considered short with too-big bosoms, and was hopeless at walking in high heels, but Dior liked to [surprise people],” said Jeanne Doutreleau, who was baptized Victoire by Dior and became his star model.
A former artist’s model, she was completely new to the fashion game, having been sent to Dior by Michel de Brunhoff, the director of French Vogue. “I remember entering Dior and seeing countless all-in-black sales ladies rushing about the foyer like blackbirds in a cage,” Doutreleau recalled in her art-filled apartment on the Rue de l’Université.
Despite what she described as an awkward casting — she had to walk in heels that were too big for her, wrapped in a lab coat for want of a dress her size — Dior hired her on the spot. Paris vintage dealer Didier Ludot observed that Dior’s collections turned sexy upon Doutreleau’s arrival at the house.
“She was different, very womanly, with a prominent bosom,” he said.
Doutreleau said she didn’t take to her new role easily. She would often turn up late, which would infuriate Dior; was clumsy at applying her makeup and during shows in the house’s salon would provocatively swing her dresses so that they would fly in the faces of editors and clients.
“It was a nervous reaction, as I was actually petrified. But it was considered a new style of modeling that shocked certain people,” she said. “Compared to the uptight models, I think I came across as rather childlike and cheeky.”
But, according to her, Dior was even more anxious.
“After each turn, we would fly out of the salon to reassure him that the audience had applauded for each dress,” she recalled. The pair developed a close bond, but, owing to the age gap, rarely socialized together. Dior liked to hold intimate gourmet dinners, while Doutreleau, who was engaged to Paris Match editor Roger Therond, would go to movie premieres and balls galore in dresses borrowed from the Dior closet. “I remember Yves Saint Laurent being aghast at how meager my personal wardrobe was,” said Doutreleau, adding that in those days, fashion models earned a lowly wage. “Unless you were a photo model like Suzy Parker, models earned a pittance and had to rely on marriage to make money,” she said.
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Her career centered on being a house model, which meant that before each collection she would spend six weeks having dresses constructed on her from morning until night. Endless muslin mock-ups would be presented to Dior in his office. “He would look at our reflection in the mirror, then at us, and then make a comment or lift my head with his gold-tipped cane,” recalled Doutreleau. “There was no playing around.”
Once the collection had come together, it would be presented to Dior like a mock show. “He would make quips about each dress, to make fun of himself and raise a laugh,” she said.
Following Dior’s untimely death, Doutreleau modeled for his successor Yves Saint Laurent’s first Dior collection and then left to get married. When Saint Laurent asked her to come back, she continued to model for him through 1960. But things had changed. “The house had gone cold,” she said, adding that, nonetheless, Saint Laurent, along with John Galliano, were the only two designers she feels have managed to channel Dior’s spirit.
Among her memories of Dior, whom she recalled as a stately, Hitchcockian figure, one amusing episode lingers. One evening, she remembered, she popped up to the studio and caught Dior, shirtless, his breeches swinging at his knees, having a shave. “It might sound silly, but I’d always imagined him pink and smooth and when I saw his hairy chest, it totally threw me,” she said, adding that Dior simply chuckled at her. “It was one of those simple human moments that we would share.”