Word: dior
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...more than three decades the label, familiar to people willing to splurge on furs or lingerie, sports shirts or neckties, has been synonymous with quality, style, high price and, above all, French refinement and good taste. At the same time, Christian Dior has developed into a booming international company with more than 1,000 employees, sales last year of $220 million and handsome (but undisclosed) profits. Yet today an unfortunate link with a troubled textile behemoth makes Dior's future uncertain...
...personal property of Marcel Boussac, 89, an ostentatious millionaire entrepreneur who did so well in textiles after World War I that he became known as France's "Cotton King." In 1946, seeking to revive the war-tattered clothing market, he teamed with a young designer, Christian Dior, to found a fashion house. The next year Dior presented his first collection: the long, ample "new look" that established his reputation and set fashion trends for a decade. Under the management of Jacques Rouet, now 60, it flourished, even after the death of Dior in 1957. But Boussac's textile...
Inevitably, the house of Dior will have to be sold to help Boussac pay off. That prospect pleases the Dior staff, which has seen the firm's profits sink year after year into the bottomless Boussac pit. Partly as a result, Dior has not had resources to invest in new products and outlets needed to keep from falling behind such dynamic competitors as Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin...
...Dior firm has plenty of suitors. Last week Robert Hocq, president of Jeweller Cartier, offered to pay $65 million for it. Among other potential buyers are French cosmetics manufacturer L'Oreal and champagne producer Moët-Hennessy, which bought Christian Dior Perfumes when Boussac needed cash in the early 1970s. The main concern of Dior's management and the French government is that the prestigious label remain in French hands. "You can't separate the Christian Dior image from France's," says Rouet. "When an American woman pays for the Dior label, she wants...
...winding Amman streets. The wedding of Jordan's King Hussein and Nur el Hussein (Light of Hussein), nee Elizabeth Halaby in Washington, was a quiet family affair. In a four-minute Muslim ceremony at the palace of Hussein's mother, the blue-suited groom, 42, and his Dior-and-diamond-bedecked bride, 26, exchanged vows in Arabic. Those present, all male according to Islamic practice, included Lisa's father, former Pan Am Chief Najeeb Halaby...