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D oris Brynner, the late doyenne of Dior Maison, the homeware and gifts arm of the French label, led the kind of enchanting life so rarely seen today. The widow of the late actor Yul Brynner, the best friend of Audrey Hepburn and confidante to Elizabeth Taylor, she frequented the homes of the art collectors Marella and Gianni Agnelli, Sally and Karim Aga Khan, and Guy and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild. Before Dior, she owned The Veranda, a homewares destination in Gstaad. Vivacious and alluring, by the time of her death in early 2025, the 93-year-old had become one of those legendary captivating personalities who made an impression on everyone she met.
“Doris Brynner was a grande dame who possessed infinite elegance and refinement,” says Delphine Arnault, the CEO of Christian Dior Couture and one of LVMH’s exective directors. “With her natural grace, she incarnated art de vivre and, with her unique taste, she breathed life into Dior Maison collections.”
Born in 1931 in Zahreb, formerly Yugoslavia, the then Doris Kleiner grew up in Santiago, Chile. “Although my mother trained to be an instrument nurse, a trip to Europe set her sights on Paris – she wanted to live big,” says her daughter, Victoria Brynner.
And who could blame Doris for her European fantasy? In 1956, Parisian soirées were bright with color and glamour. “It was so carefree,” she told W magazine in 1998. “You really did have one black dress and one sweater and no one cared.” The 1950s were also the years in which couturiers like Balenciaga, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Jacques Fath and Pierre Balmain flourished. In other words, the perfect time to be in Paris.
French Vogue’s Françoise de Langlade secured Brynner an interview with Mademoiselle Chanel for a house model position. “I had these fantastic bosoms, waist-length hair and a tiny waist,” Brynner said. The designer wanted to strap down her chest and cut her hair, so Brynner fled. Instead, she began modelling for Pierre Cardin.
During the summer of 1958, Doris met Yul at a party. A veritable coup de foudre, the meeting resulted in marriage in 1960 and the birth of daughter Victoria in 1962. The couple moved to Los Angeles where Doris experienced immediate culture shock. Her first Hollywood party was the celebration of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh’s 10th wedding anniversary. “I arrived in my Balenciaga best and Schlumberger jewelry but no one spoke to me,” she told W magazine. “When you marry a huge star, people are only interested in him.” The Brynners would divorce in 1968. Ever independent, she remained adamant that her existence, “became a lot more interesting after Yul.”
Indeed, rather than contract after the divorce, her circles only expanded. Giancarlo Giammetti hired Brynner in the 1970s to head up special client relations for Valentino, and was impressed by her effortlessness. “Doris was irresistible because she was impossible — in the most wonderful way,” says the former CEO. “Strong-willed, yes. Opinionated, absolutely. But beneath it all, she had a romantic heart, was fiercely loyal and endlessly generous. You could never stay angry with her; she was too full of life.”
Another friend, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, recalls Doris’s rare ability “to bridge generations,” befriending her children and also the grandchildren of the Agnellis, Niarchoses, Rothschilds and other fabled clans. “Doris didn’t simply sell beautiful things, she showed you how to live beautifully.” Brynner taught film director Ginevra Elkann, the granddaughter of Marella Agnelli, “how to varnish my nails, make the best roasted chicken and always see the fun in things.” Eugenie Niarchos savoured Brynner’s cosiness. “Being with her always felt comforting and familiar,” says the jewellery designer. “I’d bombard her with a million questions about her life, and she would answer with stories about my great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents…. Her memories came from another era, and yet she was always just as interested in hearing my own stories, too.”
In Diane von Furstenberg’s opinion, “the extraordinarily talented Doris could give lessons to anyone about becoming the best hostess.” Dior’s Mathilde Favier and author of Living Beautifully in Paris (titre Francais: Mathilde A Paris:) remembers her “poignant sense of detail” and how belonging to her orbit “made you feel blessed…Doris was demanding but she got the important things right,” Favier said.
Great was one of Doris Brynner’s favourite words. (With infectious panache, she pronounced it ‘greaaat.’) And judging from From Doris With Love collection –conjuring up a life of style, audacity and excellence – Doris Brynner was a “great” collector. Like her dear friend Andy Warhol, another lifelong magpie, nothing was thrown out. “My mother held onto everything,” says Victoria who combed through the belongings that range from designer clothes to fine jewellery to furnishings to baskets to receipts for her Balenciaga couture gowns to sentimental keepsakes to every single postcard ever received. For those interested in the history of a charmed life packed with social relevance, From Doris With Love promises a veritable treasure trove.
Highlights include a Bulgari brooch given to her by Audrey Hepburn and the pink Courrèges dress worn to Hepburn’s second wedding in 1969. Jean Schlumberger jewels and Balenciaga eveningwear reference Brynner’s stint as a Hollywood wife (her wedding to Yul took place in Mexico on the film set of The Magnificent Seven), while a diamond bow brooch bequeathed by Elizabeth Taylor tells the story of Brynner’s offering of discrete refuge when the Hollywood superstar and Michael Jackson were fleeing the press in 1993.
“The dramas and stories were endless,” says Victoria, who now resides in Los Angeles and whose godfather, the actor Richard Burton, taught her to drive. She recalls, for example, being nursed by Hepburn following a tonsillectomy. “My mother was off on one of her trips,” she explains. Also included in the collection are pieces that signify the depth of Doris’s relationships with artists — Warhol’s photographs, a Karl Lagerfeld drawing and Claude Lalanne’s pair of copper candelabras.
Perhaps her most lasting imprint comes from her 30-year-stint as the head of Dior Maison. “Doris was Peter Marino’s brainwave and in a few weeks, she transformed the department,” recalls Sidney Toledano, who hired Doris when he was Dior’s General Manage, at the suggestion of the artist. By Christmas, Doris had fully stocked the gift department with engraved glassware from Austria, breakfast trays from Switzerland, cloth-covered wastepaper bins from England and French hand-embroidered organza covers for bathroom accessories “Doris had the strength of character to co-exist with Dior’s designers: John Galliano, Hedi Slimane and Victoire de Castellane. Doris’s eye was so quick, faster than any iPhone.” Like le tout Paris, Toledano admired her humour, rigor, discipline and was forgiving of her infamous impatience. “Doris was the worst backseat driver ever,” he says fondly.
In her final decades, Doris held court in Paris either at Dior Maison or her nearby Avenue Montaigne apartment. “Doris became the standard-bearer of refinement,” says Princess Marie-Chantal. “She didn’t just style a space, she elevated it.” Brynner often lunched with Delphine Arnault. “We developed a true friendship as well as an indestructible complicity,” says Arnault. There were rituals such as flowers freshly picked from her garden, mini Swiss chocolates and Doris’s tendency to appear shoeless. “My mother was very proud of her feet,” Victoria confides. That barefoot habit and her penchant for midnight window shopping linger as tender memories. “My mother,” she says simply, “showed up.”
