Couture legend: Marc Bohan, Dior’s head designer for 3 decades, dies at 97

By Alex Willams

NEW YORK: Marc Bohan, the longest-serving creative director at Christian Dior, who spent nearly 30 years spinning out classically attuned looks with a touch of whimsy that, however resplendent, were meant to be worn, not gazed at on mannequins or in fashion magazines, died on Wednesday in Châtillon-sur-Seine, France. He was 97.

His death was confirmed in a statement by Dior. Because he worked in an era before fashion became mass entertainment, Bohan was not required to be a visionary. “I’m not designing to please myself or for a photograph,” he told USA Today for a 1988 profile. “I am designing for a woman who wants to look her best. I have always in mind the reaction of women I know.”

Courtly, taciturn and immaculately dapper even by the standards of midcentury Paris, Bohan was 34 when he was appointed head couturier for the House of Dior in 1960, taking over for the maverick Yves Saint Laurent. The post was supposed to be temporary, Women’s Wear Daily wrote in 2007, but it became permanent after Saint Laurent — who would go on to launch his own fashion powerhouse — suffered a nervous breakdown during his military service.

Bohan remained at the helm through the 1980s, guiding Dior longer than Christian Dior himself had. “Before my first collection for Dior, most people had the knives out,” Bohan told Women’s Wear Daily in 2007. “People were licking their lips. They were waiting for me to fall on my face.”

Under his direction, Dior helped redefine silhouettes for women’s apparel, with an emphasis on bias-cut skirts and drop-waist dresses. While his sensibility was refined, Bohan also channeled the explosion of free-spirited colour and creativity of the 1960s and ’70s pop culture into high fashion. He earned raves in 1966 for a fall couture collection inspired by the 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago,” set in wintry Russia, with its fur-trimmed coats and high boots.

His January 1970 collection raised eyebrows among some fashion arbiters for its extravagant use of cobra-skin banding on coats, suits and dresses, along with other dashes of animal hides.

From his perch atop Dior, Bohan mingled with both Hollywood royalty and the actual version. He created a line of outfits for Elizabeth Taylor and her daughter Maria Burton, as well as a wedding dress in the 1980s for Princess Caroline of Monaco. He also courted the mainstream, introducing ready-to-wear lines for young women, men and children.

Roger Maurice Louis Bohan was born in Paris on August 22, 1926.

Bohan joined Dior in 1958 and was sent to design in London. He rose to chief designer and artistic director two years later. Bohan’s run of success continued through the 1980s.

He won the Golden Thimble Award. After Dior, Bohan spent two years trying to revive the august, if financially troubled, British fashion house Norman Hartnell. He later designed under his own name. Despite his illustrious career, Bohan remained little known outside fashion circles.

“Over the years, I’ve always thought of couture as being a sort of laboratory for fashion,” he had said. “And it will continue to exist so long as there are clients for it.” “But,” he added, “no matter how well known a name may be, success in this business is never attributable to one person alone.”