Just arrived from Paris, the young Christian Dior would make the acquaintance of the woman who would become his muse, Mitza Bricard. Animal print and red lips were her signature. They say she had the habit of tying a cheetah-print fabric around her wrist to hide a scar. In charge of Dior’s hat collections, she was his advisor and friend from the start. Fascinated by the mysterious and exuberant aura of this woman, with her sleek style and elegance, Dior decided to integrate her leopard print – also designated by the expression “jungle style” – into his designs from 1947 onwards.
The very name of the perfume Miss Dior supposedly comes from Mitza. Upon seeing Catherine, Christian Dior’s sister, she is meant to have exclaimed “Miss Dior” in her unique way that made the designer say that she went “immediately for the most acute expression of this indefinable and slightly outdated thing that is ‘chic’”. The presence of Mitza is felt in all of Dior’s lines, which often pay homage to her. With François Demachy’s nose, she became a perfume: Eastern, enrapturing, and like her, ineffable. In 2011, the jungle print was integrated into the brand’s cometic line in the form of leopard colored eyeshadow in a velvet case.And this season, we have a new nod to the muse. The newest models from the Mitza collection, imagined by Victoire de Castellane, seem to be an ode to hyper-femininity, to a different femininity.Just like their designer. She recounts: “When I started, no one took me seriously, but women wanted something else and we turned the traditional values of jewelry upside down.”
For this collection, the jewelry contains a new vision of the jewel itself. Dressed in a layer of gold or diamonds, dabbed with black or chocolate lacquer, the ring becomes an animal, mystical and feline, just like Mitza. Victoire de Castellane confides that these extreme jewels, the ones that tell a story, the ones that compose something, “that are one with women”, are the only ones she loves. This is how the Mitza model draws its line in the sand, with a sensual fantasy, the claws of a leopard, encircling the finger with its tail.
Leave a Reply