Annie Goetzinger
The Girl in Dior is Clara, a freshly hired chronicler, fan of fashion and our guide in the busy corridors of the brand new house of Christian Dior. It’s February 12, 1947 and the crème de la crème of Paris Haute Couture is flocking to the momentous event of Dior’s first show. In a flurry of corolla shaped skirts, the parade of models file down the runway. The audience is mesmerized: it’s a triumph! Carmel Snow of Harper’s Bazaar cries out: “It's quite a revolution, your dresses have such a new look!“ Dior’s career is launched and Clara’s story begins. Soon, she is picked by Dior himself to be his model…
A biography docudrama marrying fiction and the story of one of the greatest couturier in history, it is also a breathless and stunning presentation of his best designs such as Lauren Bacall wore, rendered by bestselling artist Annie Goetzinger, seen for the first time on this side of the Atlantic.
REVIEWS:
Featured in MARIE-CLAIRE
"Goetzinger's illustrations are clean and crisp, just like Dior's dresses, and her use of color, such as when a new collection is introduced and needs to be shown as both bold and understated, is masterly. And there's a lot of tension in the story. After the war, Dior and his clients may have been wealthy, but most French people were still living hand to mouth. In an early scene, Clara is staging a photo shoot at a farmers' market. When one of the models casually bites into an apple, the poor vendors go nuts because food is still being rationed."
-Unshelved
"A great tale of haute couture and whimsy."
-For the Love of Frock
"Rendered in beautiful detail."
Vogue UK
"The artwork is flat-out gorgeous. Writer/artist Annie Goetzinger is one of France’s best-known names, and it’s obvious why. Her art here is skilled and spare, focusing the eye exactly where needed with nary an extra line or cross-hatch. This elegant, airy look is abetted by a color palette almost entirely in pastels. While fashion isn’t to everyone’s taste, “Girl in Dior” can be."
-Andrew ‘Capt. Comics’ Smith, Tribune News Service
"Lush in its depictions and wittily captioned, the book acts as a dreamy portal into the height of couture."
-W magazine, see their full account of Goetzinger’s exchange with Dior illustrator Bill Donovan.
"A hymn to beauty, and - through Clara's personal story - to optimism and endurance."
-Anna Battista- Irenebrination
"A whimsical tale."
ELLE, featured in April Fashion News page
"Like the women within its pages, this is a book with both beauty and substance."
-Brigid Alverson, Comic Book Resources, Robot 6
"Before becoming a cartoonist, Goetzinger studied art and fashion illustration in the late 1960s – and it shows. In sweeping tableaux and panels, she deftly captures the movement and drape of fabric with a line that’s a more sensual take on the traditional Franco-Belgian comics style of her contemporaries."
-Toronto Globe & Mail
"An obvious pick for those who appreciate graphic novels featuring female leads."
-Booklist
A Graphic Novel Reporter Pick for Winter 2015
"Goetzinger’s art and narrative cleverly weave a biography, delivered by a narrator whose naiveté rivals our own at the start of this book. Lovingly illustrated --- and even more lovingly constructed --- the narrative expresses the importance of Christian Dior and why he deserves to be well-remembered. Having only read this book, I can say I have a much greater respect for Dior, his brand, his art, and his unflinching genius."
-Graphic Novel Reporter
A Publishers Weekly Top Ten GNs for Spring
“Oh the dresses. The beautiful, stylish, inspired dresses. Goetzinger’s background in fashion is apparent not only in the flowing lines of the countless outfits and the way they gloriously capture the light, but in the layouts, backgrounds, and characters of the entire comic.”
-Publishers Weekly
“Wonderfully engaging! For someone who never gave a comic book a second glance, this little treasure has made me rethink the value of this type of reading material. Somehow this petite volume made this prophetic decade come alive in ways that no other book on the topic has been able to do before—and that includes the photo centric coffee table books!”
-Jeffrey Felner, fashion historian, NY Journal of Books
“This title is like a perfect Dior creation: stunningly designed, lavishly beautiful, effortlessly elegant. Fashionistas and fashionistos of all ages will devour this book hungrily.”
-School Library Journal
“A portrait full of lightness and class, capable of charming even men, so you can imagine how women will love this.”
-Le Figaro
“Great gift idea”
-Elle
“A beautiful work, chic, brilliant and moving”
-Questions de Femmes
“Sumptuous”
-Le Nouvel Observateur
A YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens 2016
8 1/2x 11, 128pp., full-color quarterbound, foil stamped and embossed cover, $29.99
ISBN 9781561639144
Sold out, may go back to press
Buy the e-book: $14.99