1.7: Fun, Fear and Fate
  1:10:36

A key person behind the rapid early growth of Balmain and smooth operations of the legendary flagship at 44 François Premier was Ginette Spanier. Spanier was the first person to be named as Balmain’s Directrice, (the Director of the house), and she remained in that position for almost thirty years. While her name may not be familiar to many today, she was a well-known personality during her time at Balmain—due not only to her superb management of the house’s rapid growth, but also to her amazing life story. It’s an incredible history that—just as the announcer of the popular television series “This Is Your Life” notes in the snippet we use to begin this episode—can be summed up as one of “fun, fear and fate.” Because Ginette Spanier was not only a genius at management—she was also a war hero. Spanier’s extraordinary history, told in a trio of best-selling autobiographies, is composed of a series of startling changes and her perfect adaptation to each of them. She began life as a rich Parisian. But, after her upper-class family moved to London, her parents lost their fortune during the Great Depression. Suddenly needing to work, Spanier transformed herself into a Fortnum and Mason salesgirl, rubbing shoulders with royals, artists and aristocrats of the time. And then, after moving back to Paris to live with her new French husband in 1939, she was forced to spend the years of the Nazi occupation on the run, sheltered by brave résistants, as she and her husband—both Jewish—fled the Germans and their Vichy collaborators. Immediately after the liberation of Paris, she joined the Allied forces, helping to recruit, train and organize needed support staff for the American army, as it headed east toward Berlin. After the Nazis were finally defeated, Spanier worked to create and managing the team of translators that assisted in the prosecution of the some of the modern era’s most horrific war criminals, at the historic judgement at Nuremberg. So… it’s clear that Spanier did not come with the typical background that one might expect for a Director of a French luxury haute couture house. As Directrice of Balmain for almost 30 years, Spanier oversaw the everyday workings of Balmain—skillfully managing all members of the team and working closely with Pierre Balmain to make key decisions on collections and strategy. She also oversaw the house’s daily shows and its large team of in-house haute-couture models, known as the Balmain Cabine. To best understand how Paris’ post-war model and show system worked, the podcast is joined once again by the award-winning fashion journalist Lynn Yaeger. And of course, Lynn was happy to share some amazing (and sometimes quite scandalous) tales with us.

CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE SEVENFun, Fear and Fate Fun, Fear and Fate: Ginette Spanier and Mid-Century BalmainBalmain Creative Director: Olivier RousteingAudio: This Is Your Life, 09.02.1972: Courtesy of Ralph Edwards Productions, TIYL Productions & FremantleSpecial Podcast Guest: Lynn YaegerEpisode Direction and Production: Seb LascouxBalmain Historian: Julia GuillonEpisode Coordination: Alya NazaralyResearch Assistance: Pénélope André and Yasmine Ban AbdallahDigital Coordination/Graphic Identity: Jeremy MaceEpisode researched, written and presented by John Gilligan To explore further:Pierre Balmain: My Years and Seasons, (Doubleday, 1965)Ginette Spanier: It Isn’t All Mink (Collins, 1959 and V&A Publishing, 2017)Ginette Spanier: And Now It’s Sables (R. Hale, 1970)Ginette Spanier: Long Road To Freedom (R. Hale, 1976)

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This Episode’s Music:PRALINE SUNG BY JEAN SABLONBalmain’s Creative Director, Olivier Rousteing, makes it very clear—collection after collection—that he believes that fashion can never be separated from music. Inspired by Rousteing, each l’Atelier Balmain podcast carefully selects artists and music that reflect and strengthen the story being told. During this episode, Lynn Yaeger managed to give her own distinctive spin to the translated lyrics of an early 1950’s French hit song about one of Balmain’s biggest stars: Praline. Paris has had many beautiful women (and men) working as in-house models—but there are few who ever managed to become as famous as Praline. And we can’t think of any other couture showroom model who ever had a hit song written about them! This 1951 tune was written by Eddie Constantine and sung by Jean Sablon. The melody is introduced with an astounded spoken reaction — “wait, you don’t know who Praline is?” — and then Jean Sablon breaks into a song that follows the Praline through one of her day as Balmain’s star model, beginning with her morning stroll down the Champs Elysées, following her through a tough day of shows , (while she always manages to keep looking perfectly put together), and fin...