It’s well-known that the always dapper Christian Dior never touched menswear in his lifetime. Though today, through its strong foundation of tailoring, Dior Homme echoes its master’s preference in getting dressed. The perfect, pinstriped Winter 14 collection, in store now, even utilised his lucky mascot, the Lily of the Valley. But with womenswear, he was a tornado. In a little over a decade, Christian Dior not only transformed women’s fashion but the very mechanics of the entire industry’s approach to business – then, now and future forward. His creative prowess and expansive vision will continue as a legacy for designers in a hundred; two hundred and more years. It’s the root of this legacy – the years that shaped it from 1947-1957 – that forms the basis for Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni’s fourth book, Monsieur Dior: Once Upon A Time.

Speaking to the likes of Pierre Cardin, John Fairchild, Olivia de Havilland, Jacqueline de Ribes and a host of Dior’s vendeuses, society clients, models and muses, the British Paris-based writer has forged an intimate insight into the very structure of the House of Dior. (Beyond couture, Mr Dior had a passion for with the arts and counted the likes of Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Salvatore Dalí as friends). Then there’s the imagery, an elevated line up of iconic and never-before-seen materials from the Dior archives, tracing until 1957, the year Dior died and the design helm was passed on to his chosen successor, a 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent. That the book comes in a box is fitting – as the Fraser-Cavassoni explains, this is a story that will be treasured, in this form or other, for generations to come.

Tempe Nakiska: What is your earliest memory of Dior?
Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni: Born in 1963, my mother, the writer Antonia Fraser, only wore Miss Dior, the fragrance. Still, I did not associate it with Christian Dior. Then when I was nine she did a shoot with Norman Parkinson and she was wearing a Christian Dior green taffeta dress. That was really the first time that the name registered – though I’d been brought up with it, I didn’t realise a scent could be linked with a designer.

TN: 1963 – already, that’s several years since the house’s founding. Can you take us back tho the seismic moment the book begins with, in 1947?
NFC: This is definitely capturing his world. It really begins with the New Look. Nowadays for a designer to make headlines you have to be pretty controversial – a sex or drug scandal. With the New Look, Dior absolutely hit the scandal mark on target, because there was a ration on clothes, on fabric, and he was proposing huge amounts of fabric. He started this Dior ‘fever’ because women wanted to wear it, to have this Venus de Milo silhouette. Controversy is magic if you’re starting a new house, of course. As I stress in the book, to succeed in fashion it’s really about the ‘Three T’s’: Timing, Temerity and Talent. If Dior had done the New Look in 1951 it wouldn’t have worked. 1947 was the perfect timing.

TN: He was at the same time very savvy in terms of his approach to his business, he pioneered licensing agreements, which is where the scent came in of course…
NFC: Yes, and he was very close to Jacques Rouët, and they worked on that side of the business together. Dior poured himself into his fashion house.

TN: He failed, essentially, in the art world – what impact did that have?
NFC: It taught him he had to be really focus and seize upon every opportunity. What’s interesting about Dior is his relationship with fashion journalists. Unlike today, French couturiers were not accessible to the media. They were terrified of having their clothes copied from the magazines by cheap manufacturers, and hence losing money. Dior’s attitude was the opposite, he thought, ‘better out than in’ – it was a very modern attitude. He considered it a two way street. Not unlike today. But that was incredible for 1947.

TN: And again it traces back to his attitude towards licensing…
NFC: Yes, if people couldn’t afford the couture line, then they could purchase the Miss Dior scent, or the Christian Dior hosiery. He was making himself into a global brand. The idea that his models, nicknamed his ‘cheries’, would do shows in London, Tokyo and Caracas; that was then unheard of.

TN: It was quite an alien concept, I imagine.
NFC: Balenciaga was horrified that Dior put his name on ties. You know, Balenciaga the purist. Dior’s philosophy was entirely different.

TN: Who stands out to you as one of the interview highlights in the process of putting together the book?
NFC: There are so many. Interviewing Pierre Cardin was quite incredible because he worked on the very first show. Cardin created the famous ‘Bar’ jacket. Cardin is in his nineties but he looks as if he’s in his seventies. He also has an astounding memory. There’s a lot of talk about the New Look collection and how they supposedly made the skirts long so as to encourage the manufacturing of more fabric. Not to be forgotten, Marcel Boussac who financed Dior’s house was the major cotton manufacturer. So obviously, such a detail would serve and be in Boussac’s interest. However, Cardin recalled that Christian Dior actually couldn’t decide on the length, whether they should go short or long. At that show, the model wearing the ‘Bar’ jacket was so thin that Cardin had to go to the pharmacy and buy bolts of cotton wool to pad out the look. It was an exciting interview.

TN: What came across most strongly about Monsieur Dior the man?
NFC: What’s so interesting is that Monsieur Dior remains an emotional name for many. The mention of Dior brought up a response that implied that the decade was a very happy moment for people – and that came from him. Monsieur Dior was a pleasant guy, and he wanted people to look great. We hear a lot about people in fashion being very stressed and designers losing their tempers. But according to Dior’s assistant Yorn Michaelsen and others who worked directly with the French couturier, it was the absolute opposite.

TN: You feature quite an extensive archive or unseen visuals in the book, what was the process like in terms of sourcing?
NFC: My publisher Suzy Sleslin, her art director Federico Farina and I really aimed for unseen images. With this in mind, I contacted people I’d interviewed such as Yorn Michaelsen. He gave us an unseen photo of him drawing Alla, the famous Dior model. Through Doris Brynner, a well-connected friend, I secured two images of the renowned hostess and client Patricia Lopez Willshaw, one where she’s dancing and then one of her magnificent home where she entertained le tout Paris. The book’s images don’t just cover Dior’s designs, they also reveal the period and the lifestyle of the women who could afford his couture clothes. It was about wearing Dior when travelling, the corsets, the trunks, the changing five times a day. Imagine, tea time meant changing!

TN: What were Olivia de Havilland’s strongest memories of the house?
NFC: Well she wore Dior when she got married for the second time. And she still owns her first dress from him since it represented a happy time. The same applied to the late Lauren Bacall. She associated the house of Christian Dior with memories of Humphrey Bogart, her first husband. At the 1952 Academy Awards, she wore Dior when he won his first and only Oscar. Bacall also remembered him seeing one of Dior’s bills and Bogart screaming about the expense. To quote Bacall, “the prices were a joke!”

TN: You mentioned Yorn Michaelsen, who was Dior’s assistant. What most stood out from that interview?
NFC: Obviously when you put together a book like this you have a main list of characters you want to speak with. Then there are some that you just luck out with. One was Yorn Michaelsen. Born German, he said a lot of French people didn’t speak to him because of that, but Dior didn’t have that attitude.

Michaelsen had this funny story about Monsieur Dior’s greed. One morning, he gave a very rich German Christmas fruitcake to Monsieur Dior. The only problem being that the designer wasn’t meant to eat sweets. Though of course, he loved them… Anyway, when Dior saw the cake, he grabbed Michaelsen and said, “Quick, quick come into the elevator with me.” They went up and down in the elevator about five times so Dior could finish it all off. But when Dior finished, he said, “now it’s time for lunch!” I love that.

TN: That’s priceless.
NFC: Exactly. Or there was Cristiana Brandolini’s experience. During one of her Dior fittings, the couturier came in and just slightly shortened the sleeve of the jacket. In her words, “It was nothing, but it made all the difference.” And that, to me, is the point of couture.

‘Monsieur Dior: Once Upon A Time’ by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni is out now, published by Pointed Leaf Press. Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni will give a talk on Christian Dior and her new book at the V&A on the 26th November. Tickets here.