Les Parisiennes

This staff pick encompasses a review of six loosely, interconnected books, which I read concurrently as they shared a common thread of telling the untold stories of women during World War II in France. The books are a combination of fiction and non-fiction, they can be read as standalones or read alongside one another as companion books. 

My first read is a book of historical fiction, The Paris Secret by Australian author, Natasha Lester. In this novel, the main female characters are based on the lives of real people, who had active roles in the French Resistance Movement and the British Royal Air Force, (Air Transport Auxiliary), during World War Two. One of these characters, Catherine Dior, was a true-to-life member of the French Resistance and younger sister of the iconic French Couturier, Christian Dior. (She was an agent in the Massif Central unit of a Resistance network). Christian also named his classical fragrance, Miss Dior, in her honour. 
                                                                                       
This information on Catherine Dior piqued my interest sufficiently for me to read more extensively on her life story, Miss Dior: A story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie. Catherine worked for an intelligence unit during the war and was captured by the Gestapo in August 1944. She was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp for women in Germany. In April 1945, she escaped the death march at the end of the war, and managed to return to Paris, having survived against the odds after a year of starvation rations, torture and extreme harsh treatment at the hands of French collaborators and the Nazis.

Though at times this was a difficult, harrowing read, this historical account was partly written due to the dearth of information on the younger Dior sibling. Catherine, like so many women in the French Resistance, were involved in defending and ultimately liberating France, and were, for the most part, written out and lost to history. Justine Picardie explores why these women’s stories were generally disregarded when they returned to France after taking the most terrible risks throughout the war.

The book concludes that these omissions may be partly due to France having a complicated history of Nazi occupation and collaboration. It may also be part of a broader attitude in many parts of post-war Europe where there existed a certain collective amnesia which was adopted as a defence mechanism for countries to move forward. These female survivors were viewed as living reminders of the evil perpetrated in France. They were silenced as it was perceived that their accounts of the war were too raw, painful, shameful and humiliating to hear. Not many could comprehend what they had experienced, and this was another part of their suffering. 
The bio also examines the close sibling relationship between Catherine and Christian Dior. Christian was a man who became famous when he introduced his revolutionary ‘New Look’ Couture collection in Paris in February 1947.

This led me to read two books relating to Christian Dior and both published by V&A publications.

The first is Christian Dior, edited by Oriole Cullen, the Irish-born Curator of the Designer of Dreams exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2019. The oversize book is a beautifully produced publication, particularly the quality of photography of Dior’s clothing designs over the decades. This book was created to record the Exhibition but equally, to highlight the continuing importance, influence and creativity of the House of Dior. The book also acknowledges how Dior reinvigorated the post-war Parisian fashion industry at a time when his creations were viewed in certain quarters as a flagrant display of luxury in an age when there was still much post-war hardship and rationing. 

The second V&A publication is from their Fashion Perspective series, Dior by Dior: The Autobiography of Christian Dior, originally published in 1957 and republished by V&A in 2007. This is Dior is his own words and perspective.

Anne Sebba’s Les Parisiennes, also asks the question as to why couture continued to matter to Parisian women at a time of war, was it vanity or could it be justified as an important aspect of self-respect and pride by not giving in to Nazi occupation? But more importantly, Les Parisiennes provides a gateway and a strong reference point in bringing a broader overview to the historical social, cultural and economic aspects of the everyday lives of Parisian women (Les Parisiennes) in the 1940’s, primarily focusing on the period of WW2.

In this extensively researched publication, the fundamental question of the book examines the complex, ethical choices and decisions women in Paris had to make during Nazi occupation of their city, with some choosing to join resistance groups while others collaborated, by forming personal or business relationships with German officers and soldiers. However, the majority had no choice but struggled to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence for the duration of the war. Choices that were made often centred on mere survival for themselves and their families.

To add to a very complicated situation, this book illustrates that Paris was a city of contrasts during the war. It was a city of light, with the theatre, cinema and couture houses doing a thriving trade while the darker side was made up of women and children struggling to survive, staving off starvation and disease and others who perished by execution or torture in the city or in concentration camps.

There also existed in Paris ‘the grey life’, this middle moral grey area, where citizens suffered under very arduous circumstances and with shortages of food, trying to decide whether to steal or scavenge, to live off the black market or have no money for food. These were very stark choices. Those who had money could buy couture and jewellery but also, there was those who sold their jewellery and luxury goods to Germans for money to buy food and essentials. 
The book also discusses how couture houses and jewellers continued to sell to Germans during the war. Keeping the economy going was considered extremely important as was keeping one’s spirits up. Parisiennes made a great effort to look stylish. In some circles, being chic and stylish was viewed as a form of rebellion, and it was an attitude held that people were not going to fold in and be subservient to the German occupation.

Anne Sebba writes about the myriad ways and means that Parisiennes refused to toe the line and give in to German subjugation. She recounts stories from young women, unknown names, in the French Resistance who jeopardized their lives to help the war effort and to help fellow citizens. There were also those stories of high-profile French citizens that we are familiar with, character accounts from war collaborators and resisters to actresses, Fashion Designers and writers - Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Edith Piaf, Simone Veil, and Irène Némirovsky. Contrarily, in the post-liberation days, there were many occurrences where female collaborators were subjected to summary justice and very publicly shamed. She writes that the public outing of these women was a gendered punishment.

This is an in-depth read, which included many survivors’ personal testimonies. It proved to be an invaluable reference guide on aspects of French cultural/artistic life and the biographies of people living during this period. This book acted as a gateway to reading further aspects of life in Paris that were referenced in the book.

One such person was Marie-Madeleine Fourcade in Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olsen. Marie-Madeleine built and was head of France’s largest resistance spy network, that provided intelligence to the Allies and more specifically, M16. Marie-Madeleine, like Catherine Dior, was relegated to the footnotes of history, despite holding this position as the mother of two young children and pregnant with her third in 1943. She was arrested twice and escaped on both occasions. Though her Network collected intelligence for M16, M16 were unaware that it was a woman who was heading up the Alliance. She did not reveal her identity to them as she was concerned they would reject her out of hand. But despite the extraordinary achievements of Fourcade and her network, she went largely unknown until this book was published.

In choosing six books for a book review, I wanted to highlight that reading can be a journey and can take you anywhere, from fiction to non-fiction, WWII Resistance to post-war couture design. By reading in this way, I came away with a greater knowledge and understanding of this overlooked period in modern European history.