1.7: Fun, Fear and Fate

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 manage the team of translators that assisted in the prosecution of the some of the modern era’s most horrific war criminals, during 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.

Learn more on Balmain.com

CREDITS L’ATELIER BALMAIN EPISODE SEVEN

Fun, Fear and Fate

Fun, Fear and Fate: Ginette Spanier and Mid-Century Balmain

Balmain Creative Director: Olivier Rousteing

Audio: This Is Your Life, 09.02.1972: Courtesy of Ralph Edwards Productions, TIYL Productions & Fremantle

Special Podcast Guest: Lynn Yaeger

Episode Direction and Production: Seb Lascoux

Balmain Historian: Julia Guillon

Episode Coordination: Alya Nazaraly

Research Assistance: Pénélope André and Yasmine Ban Abdallah

Digital Coordination/Graphic Identity: Jeremy Mace

Episode 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 Span