He described himself as "the happiest boy in the world." At Saint-Cyr he was under the influence of the English teacher Miss Mary Bache, to whom he dedicated his autobiography, "Au revoir les enfants." He met Jeanne Lanvin in 1922 and married her in 1927. She became a fashion designer, inspired by her husband's designs. She collaborated with him on many designs for dresses and suits.
Christian was interested in art from an early age, and he took classes at the Académie Colarossi. In 1928 he published his first collection of drawings, "Comme en prison" (As if in prison). He began designing for his wife's house-party dresses in 1929 after she gave him a large commission to make evening gowns for her couture collection called "Les 1001 nuits." The success of their designs led to other fashion houses contracting with them to produce dresses for their collections.
Many of these dresses are still worn today by celebrities such as Princess Grace of Monaco, Brooke Shields, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barbara Streisand, Cher, Diana Ross, Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, Michelle Pfeiffer and other fashion icons. Christian named his first collection after Jeanne Lanvin's name: "A la lanvin". In 1936 they moved to a new house on Avenue Marcellin-Berthelot near the Place Vendôme in Paris' 8th arrondissement.
They began collaborating on new designs together and created some of their best work during this period. Christian is featured throughout the fashion world as having been the mastermind behind many famous fashion designs such as:
He also designed many dresses for ball gowns for royalty such as Queen Elizabeth II (1946), Queen Juliana (1947), Princess Grace (1957), Queen Noor (1962) and Princess Margareth (1972).
Christian died of a heart attack at age 67 on January 31st 1964 while walking down Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris with his wife and daughter Alix and was buried at Passy Cemetery near Montmartre.
Author: George W.S. Trow