Marc Bohan

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Marc Bohan (born August 22, 1926) is a French fashion designer. He was the assistant to Christian Dior and in charge of the London, England branch of the house until 1958, when Yves Saint-Laurent, then fashion director of the house, was drafted by the army into the Algerian War of Independence. (Saint-Laurent lasted 4 weeks in the army, then suffered a nervous breakdown.) Marc Bohan was handed the reins in Saint-Laurent's absence. What happened when Saint-Laurent was released from the hospital depends on whom you believe. According to Saint-Laurent, Dior promised to hold his job until his return, but intentionally deceived Saint-Laurent by replacing him with the more diplomatic Bohan. Dior insists there was never such an agreement: the draft was beyond their control, and they needed to keep the house open. Saint-Laurent was so incensed that, with the help of his partner Pierre Berge, they sued Christian Dior for breach of contract. The French courts sided with Saint-Laurent, and the damages awarded were enough to open his own highly successful fashion house.

Bohan's first collection shifted away from Saint-Laurent's radical ideas and returned the clothing to support the luxe, ladylike dresses and suits the house was renowned for. His overall plan was to keep Dior's image intact, and under his direction Dior became associated with an older customer as it shifted from trend-setter to trend-follower.

Bohan did have his credits. One collection, in 1966, broke new ground and represented a shift in Dior's design aesthetic. Instantly dubbed the "Peter Pan look", it featured slim, fitted tunics (jerkins) worn over leggings. Highly influential, it was widely copied and generally considered to be Bohan's strongest collection in his tenure and closer to the architectural aesthetics of Dior himself. By and large, however, he is most remembered for the profitability of his designs.

The house slowly settled into fashion's "grand dowager", and by 1980 all profits were earned from Dior's licenses and non-fashion (cosmetics, jewellery) goods. In 1983, LVMH acquired Boussac, a luxury French fabric manufacturer, which had many other holdings, including Christian Dior. As LVMH energized Dior's cosmetics business (Capture, Svelte and the ubiquitous Poison) and bought back the lucrative but image-shattering licenses, the fate of Bohan became highly speculative.

In May 1989, LVMH shocked the fashion world when it announced Bohan had been dismissed and replaced with Italian designer Gianfranco Ferrè. (Jean-Paul Gaultier had approached Bernard Arnault, president of LVMH, and formally asked for the job. He asked again when Ferrè left in 1994). Bohan is rumoured to have discovered this by reading it in the newspaper.

In 1990, Marc Bohan became the fashion director of Norman Hartnell in London. He remained until 1992, unable to reverse Hartnell's falling fortunes, and now designs only under his own name.