Doris Brynner, Doyenne of Dior Homewares, Dies at 93
Doris Brynner, the longtime head of Dior’s home furnishings and gift department, died Saturday at 93 in Lausanne, Switzerland, after a short illness, her daughter Victoria confirmed to WWD.
A widow of the Russian actor Yul Brynner and a woman with a nonpareil flair for decorating and entertaining, she also did modeling, and worked at Pierre Cardin upon her arrival in France in the ’50s from Chile, and later at Valentino, taking charge of special client relations at the Roman couture house.
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Throughout her colorful life, Brynner counted a wide array of fashion and Hollywood friends including Karl Lagerfeld, Pierre Bergé, Pierre Cardin, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn, Oscar de la Renta, Lee Radziwill and Alain Delon.
Sidney Toledano was running Christian Dior in 1997 when American architect Peter Marino suggested he conscript Brynner to zhuzh up the brand’s giftware department.
“In a few weeks, she changed the whole thing,” Toledano marveled on Saturday, lauding not only Brynner’s superb instincts, but her daring and lighthearted approach to tableware, picture frames, wicker baskets and candles.
Glasses etched with Dior’s canework pattern and plates bearing lily of the valley blooms are among the enduring designs she brought to the house, along with clients that moved in her social circles — a swath of Europe’s beau monde with last names like Agnelli and Aga Khan.
Toledano said Brynner kept a small apartment on Avenue Montaigne in Paris and spent a good amount of time in the Dior flagship, feeling so at home there she would sometimes remove her shoes.
Indeed, she became part of the extended family of Dior owner and luxury titan Bernard Arnault, along with his wife Hélène Mercier-Arnault and his children.
A woman of strong opinions, boundless energy and impeccable dress, Brynner favored well-fitting jackets, chunky earrings, and vivid colors like pink, red and purple.
“She was extraordinary, she had the most amazing and perfect taste,” a rueful Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “It’s a very big loss for our house and our family. She was a great friend of our family, and she was so special and unique.”
Arnault said Brynner, born under the star sign Leo, poured a lot of “passion, energy and dynamism” in her work for Dior, often shuttling to Venice to work with glass artisans there — and into her free time.
“She had an unbelievable life, with many different chapters,” Arnault related. ” She was always up for a party, or a dinner, she never wanted to stay at home.”
Into healthy eating and clean living long before wellness became a thing, Brynner also loved nature, flowers, her pet dogs and taking photos of her countless friends, which he kept in albums at her home in Switzerland, Arnault related. “She was always making things fun and interesting…I’m going to miss her.”
Bernard Arnault also lauded Brynner’s “exceptional taste for objects and design in general. Her lively and cheerful personality was unique. Her passing is a great loss to the French spirit. She will be greatly missed by me and all her friends at the house of Dior.”
Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories collections at Dior, said she would remember Brynner “for the generosity of her friendship and for everything I learned from spending time with her over the years.
“She was incredibly relevant in every situation in which she worked, in every relationship with people and things,” Chiuri said. “She was the embodiment of a quiet and sophisticated way of working according to her own tastes, her own sense of chic and glamour. She is the image of an era where personal style was central. She breathed fashion and contributed to it through her multiple careers.”
Born in the former Yugoslavia in 1931, Brynner grew up in Chile, but made her career in Europe, joining Valentino in the early ’70s and leaving an indelible mark on the Roman house.
“She was not only a great beauty and perfectly elegant, she was a great friend — always ready to bring lightness to one’s life,” said Giancarlo Giammetti, the longtime business parter of house founder Valentino Garavani. “She was also important to help Valentino and me to create a lifestyle that lasts until now. She is gone now, but she had an amazing life. It’s a pity that she never wrote the book I kept asking her to do.”
Marino met Brynner through Marella Agnelli and they became friends immediately, delighting in their shared love of music and interior decoration.
“She had divine taste, and was very particular as to how you set a table, what flowers you put, what silver,” Marino said. “Her shop was so great. I mean, she picked the best glasses in Venice, the best glasses in Austria, the best glasses in France, the best dishes, the best silver, everything.”
Once, at dinner together after a concert in Salzburg, he was stunned to hear Brynner speaking perfect Spanish to Plácido Domingo, another of her famous friends. “And I’m like, ‘Doris, I didn’t know your Spanish was so good.’ And she says, ‘Listen you bimbo. I’m from Chile.’ I had no idea,” Marino recalled. “She was super feisty.
“She never let anybody get away with anything, which I adored,” he continued. “She was part of that generation of very witty, clever, stylish women, super fast, never missing a beat.”
In 2012, Brynner was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, which recognizes significant contributions to the arts. At the time, French politician Frédéric Mitterrand lauded her as a “symbol of chic” who won fans immediately in fashion with her beauty and charm.
Brynner became known for her famous eye and taste when she operated The Veranda, a shop in Gstaad, selling homewares.
She is survived by her daughter Victoria Brynner, and grandchildren Isabella Brynner-Sullivan and Eugene Joseph Sullivan IV. A memorial service is being planned for the spring.
— With contributions from Luisa Zargani
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