New Chief At Dior Salon Puts Artistry In Dress

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29330, 8 October 1960, Page 2

New Chief At Dior Salon Puts Artistry In Dress

A quiet, thoughtful, married man of 34 years has replaced the “boy wonder,” Yves St. Laurent, as chief designer at the house of Christian Dior, In Paris. He is Marc Bohan, and even before his new post with Dior he had made an international reputation for himself as a fashion designer. His career began at the end of World War II when he trained with Piguet, Molyneux and Madeleine de Rauche. Later he opened his own couture salon in Paris named Raphael, but it failed after one season because of inadequate financial backing. Then came an appointment as designer for the couture house of Jean Patou. Said to have a calm temperament and a knowledge of designing from the ground up, Marc Bohan has fought long and hard for recognition. He left the salon of Madeleine de Rauche because he was not accredited as codesigner, and at the house of Jean Patou he was not permitted to use his name on the Patou label. His negotiations with the French House of Re villon to design dresses as well as furs for them did not materialise. Although a personal friend of the late Christian Dior,' Marc Bohan did not join the house till IQSB, since when he has been designing Dior clothes to be . sold only in England. It is said that Bohan intended to design a ready-to-wear collection fop the Christian Dior salon in New York but that friction between him and St. Laurent made this impossible. Consequently, this last summer Bohan disaffiliated with Dior. Ideas Praised Now, the man whose previous short-lived collections have been acclaimed by fashion writers as “bursting with exciting ideas" has reached the top. The man who looks as if he might easily be a banker or- an engineer is facing the climax of his career—his first collection for Dior will be appraised by the international press and store buyers in January, 1961. And what has become 'of St Laurent? That talented 24-year-old designer is reported to be suffering from a nervous collapse in a military hospital. He has been

drafted for 27 months of military service after repeated deferments. Although it was rumoured that the house of Dior no longer wished to retain him, it still has a contract with him. In the meantime, the fashion world is eagerly awaiting further proof of Bohan’s talents. It is looking for more of his “incredibly pretty” evening gowns, more of his successful print dresses and his fine 'artistry in draping and fitting.