“This house,” Christian Dior once wrote of Château de La Colle Noire, “I would like it to be my real home. The one where, if God grants me a long life, I can retire.”
Well, quite.
If you’re ever fortunate enough to visit the couturier’s sprawling 19th-century Provençal estate, which he painstakingly restored in the 1950s, you’ll probably feel exactly the same. It is extraordinary. The château, with its hexagonal entrance hall (the pebble floor is famously laid in the shape of a compass rose), unfolds into a series of intimate yet quietly grand high-ceilinged rooms, filled with antiques, Provençal textiles and the sort of effortless elegance that actually requires a lot of effort to achieve.
Outside, roses, jasmine and lily of the valley bloom among the olive and citrus trees, while at the centre of the estate sits a spectacular 45-metre reflecting pool that almost mirrors the château back onto itself. Aside from being one of the area’s most beautiful residences, La Colle Noire is also a place inextricably linked to Dior’s creative legacy – the region inspired Miss Dior, the house’s first fragrance, all the way back in 1947. And so, it feels like an entirely fitting setting for my conversation with Natalie Portman, Oscar-winning actor and Dior ambassador of well over a decade, ahead of the unveiling of her latest Miss Dior campaign.
Pierre Mouton for Christian Dior Parfums
Heavily pregnant, Portman is wearing a blue and white Dior babydoll dress and proper heels, which appear to require no effort on her part whatsoever (this should come as no surprise I suppose; after all, this is the woman who won an Oscar for her turn as a prima ballerina in Black Swan). Warm, thoughtful and engaging – but also interested in having a two-way dialogue – Portman is charming and disarming. She also has a relaxed confidence that makes sense for someone who has represented Dior for such a significant period of time. In an industry that increasingly treats ambassadors like fashion trends – enthusiastically embraced one season, quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) replaced the next – Portman is something of an outlier. Yet there isn’t the slightest hint of complacency.
“The kind of elegance and legacy of the House of Dior and the perfume Miss Dior existed so long before me, so I felt – and still feel – very lucky to be invited to join,” she says. Still, Portman is keen to stress that the relationship has long transcended the traditional ambassador-brand dynamic. “Getting to be part of it has been so meaningful because, like every relationship that is long – and positive,” she adds with a wry chuckle, “you get the beauty of the accumulation in years and experiences together. The women at the helm, Delphine Arnault and Véronique [Courtois, CEO of Parfums Christian Dior], have become important friends in my life. Every time we get together, it feels like family getting together. There’s this sense of real relationships and belonging. Which I think is really important, especially for women.”
