Madame Mitza Bricard is one of these almost unknowable creatures. Mitzah Bricard had the strong reputation - deserved - as a fashion muse as well as owning the good jewelry collection of a woman who had been treated as a a treasure or gifted by the men who enjoyed her as a courtesan.Yet, if this is true, the name or names of the man or men who kept her or patronized her remain unknown.
She is most known as a muse to fashion designer Christian Dior, not that she was ever his mistress. Her presence and opinion were important in that design studio and have had lasting impact. The mistress's role as muse to her man is an important one too, so you see the connection I've made. Her taste and her very presence made her a woman who stood out. Dior said she was a rare person who made elegance her reason for being.
Fond of wearing leopard coats and turbans or simply wiffs of printed cloth,
Mitzah was even called Christian Dior's Leopardess.
MITZAH BRICARD
Germaine Louise Neustadtl
1900 - 1977
Our Mistress of the Month, Mitzah Bricard, maintained a mysterious past that had her encountering those who would keep her in stand-out jewels such as her long array of pearls - jewelry which she continued to wear judiciously to accessorize. From being a person who had the means to purchase, she evolved to be one of designer Christian Dior's salon muse - collaborators. Called one of the last 'grand-horizontals' by John Galliano, then designer for the House of Dior, in a 2017 article in Women's Wear Daily, she was also known for what she did not wear, knickers. It was said she walked around the salon, comfortable in her nakedness but for a wiff of leopard cloth. She was photographed by the elite photographers Louise Dahl-Wolf and Horst P. Horst, and Cecil Beato, black and white portraits of a mature woman with great presence. Unafraid to speak her mind, she sometimes looked in as the designs were evolving, only to make a negative comment, and was also known for ranging moods. Mitzah had a background in millinery so Dior made her the head of that department and she was also known for wearing hats, along with the above mentioned leopard and pearls.
Her background contains mystery. She was born maybe in Paris, maybe somewhere in Romania. Her mother was English but her father was Austrian but how did she get to Paris or meet the Romanian diplomat and did she ever live in Romania? As for that name Mitzah, also spelled Mitza or Mizza, who knows where it came from or when; to me it sounds Jewish. She had a string of rich lovers but was it love or were they patrons? She first married a Romanian diplomat, Alexandro Biano (which sounds Italian). After his death, she married in 1941 to the uber-rich Hubert Bricard, president of B.L.B. Laboratories; this we are sure of.** Prior to Dior, she is credited with having been a muse to English designer Edward Henry Molyneux, who had a salon that opened in 1919 in Paris, before World War II. Did this artist, fashion designer, and military officer, also give her jewels?
Christian Dior (1905-1957) lived to be only fifty-two, dying while on vacation in Italy after suffering a third heart attack. Madame Bricard was already a woman of a 'certain age' during her tenure at Dior, in her late forties and fifties, looking well preserved and quite beautiful and most of all elegant and feline.
In reading around Dior, whose legacy is lasting, I learned that this late-bloomer died about a decade or so into having his own business and label, after working for other designers in Paris. Dior suddenly got attention in 1947. On board during those years were a number of women who are credited as being his collaborators including his sister, for whom the Miss Dior perfume was created. Mitzah is credited with naming it. In more modern times, the House of Dior created a perfume in her memory named after her. Certain collections through the years have been inspired by her. The fall 2021 collection included a Mitzah jacket, a leopard print with a figure-shaping hug.
Known for going against the more functional but 'masculine' apparel worn by women during the World War II years, in which women stepped up to activities once owned by men, and creating a tiny waist- full skirt fashion that emphasized femininity, Dior was not at all opposed to having women's opinions. These women lived for fashion but also they worked at the salon actively throughout the process of creating a new garment. Mitzah is seen pining a dress to a fit model, at a quick lunch in the salon before they all get back to work, and appearing at small in-house fashion shows as staff, wearing her finest, as well as modeling for photographers, a busy woman. While Coco Chanel deplored the feminine look of Dior, those in his camp thought her fashion's androgynous. His women were considered to be "flowers."
Who was this man, Dior? In a podcast I listened to on YouTube originating from the House of Dior, an interesting and beautifully stated mini-documentary, I learned that Christian Dior believed in the occult - palm readings, astrology, psychics, fortune telling - intuitive women - and went for readings frequently. He sought guidance for his success.
Image of Madame Mitzah Bricard at work in millinery from BlogStudio
BLOG STUDIO - CHRISTIAN DIOR many good images here.
The current Dior line of long, thin silk scarves includes an astrology pattern. Dior's emergence was on the last day of what was the 1947 Paris fashion shows, almost as if this was the plan for luck. He is said to have sewn lily flowers into the hems of garments because they were his favorite flower.
We'll be learning more about Christian Dior and Madame Mitzah Bricard this month as I pull from a few books that describe their relationship, which is the best way to get to know a woman who became known, while keeping her mystery.
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** Although there is information on current companies with this name, I've not been able to clarify what the company her husband was president was about or if it still exists. I won't speculate as there are a few possibilities.
As well as Bill Cunningham's book "Fashion Climbing."
And, we'll look at Dior's own memoir.
*** John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a British fashion designer who was the head designer of French fashion companies Givenchy, Christian Dior, and his own label John Galliano. At present, Galliano is the creative director of Paris-based fashion house Maison Margiela. - citing Wikipedia.
Interested in modeling and fashion? You might want to read :
SIMONE MICHELINE BODINE - "BETTINA" - THE FIRST SUPERMODEL and MISTRESS OF ALY KHAN - A JET SET ERA MISTRESS which appears in the June 2015 edition of Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot.
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