Dior Maison’s Creative Director Cordelia de Castellane Talks About Her New Book and Rustic French Style

MILAN — While French Country was a design concept commercialized for the masses throughout much of the ’90s and beyond, French Rustic has much more to do with actually living in nature, Cordelia de Castellane explained.

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“To make a countryside look, it should stay at the countryside. I’m not about doing countryside at home in Paris or in New York or whatever. It’s very important to understand the place where you’re going to live…the view, how you feel and finding good balance in a room,” the aesthete told WWD as she prepares for her Friday talk “Playing With Rustic Style” at France’s premier design trade show Maison & Objet that closes Monday.

The interior and fashion designer, who has been creative director for Dior Maison since 2017 and Baby Dior since 2012, said the two have been interwoven seamlessly throughout her whole life. She paid tribute to her mother, an interior designer, who taught her to be daring, and her uncle Gilles Dufour, who was a designer and former assistant to Karl Lagerfeld . Working with him led to an internship at Emanuel Ungaro.

“I can’t take any credit for it. I just grew up watching everyone work,” she said, noting that for her, there is no distinction between designing for fashion and decor. “When you are a creative, you’re creative about everything, and I see my work 360 degrees.”

The mother of four children is also the founder of Studio Cordelia de Castellane, a multidisciplinary studio that specializes in interior design for luxury hotels, restaurants and private clients like Ladurée, one of the oldest pastry shops in Paris.

The countryside aesthetic was a main driver for the four-year redesign of the 12th-century Cistercian Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, an upscale getaway that opened in August and that sits on the edge of the Rambouillet forest in France.

Digging into the Dior archives, exploring 17th- and 18th-century motifs like “The Four Seasons” by Antoine Watteau and flea market treasure hunting have played a role in the evolution of her distinct style. But not as much as her own flowers: lilies, sunflowers and farm of 2,000 dahlias.

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While she keeps a main residence in downtown Paris, she is widely known for the Instagrammable curation of her picturesque French country estate in L’Oise, just one hour north of Paris, a haven distinguished by its parterres and topiary, which were redesigned by British landscape architect Milan Hajsinek. Gardening and hobbies like pressing flowers and floral arranging bring her closer to Christian Dior and his passions, despite never having met, she explained. “I always say Mr. Dior is my best friend because he was a bit like me. He liked to go every weekend to his house and garden and was quite obsessed with flowers.”

Indeed, one of her biggest successes in the home sphere was her Lily of the Valley collection for Dior Maison, which debuted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lily is of personal importance to her because it was not only Christian Dior ’s lucky charm, but her father was born on May 1, France’s Labor Day, a day in which lilies have been gifted since the 16th century.

“I got a lot of inspiration from painting and art like a lot of designers and there’s nothing very original about that. But when I was young my eyes were always drawn to the landscaping. I think Monet had a way to paint them beautifully with the seasons serving as a nature driver.”

Seemingly undaunted by a challenge, de Castellane has been writing her second coffee table book dedicated to the role nature has played in the evolution of her creativity: “Flower Couture, From My Garden to My House,” which will be published by Rizzoli in February.

When it comes to entertaining, making guests feel welcome and creating a happy atmosphere is paramount. “Everything is in the details. Watch the light…make sure the napkins that are well-folded, the names are written on something special, there are unique objects on the tables like books, statues and flowers that they can take home.”

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