Alla Ilchun was the first Euro-Asian model who was born in 1926. As a half-Kazakh, half-Russian, she established the Asian appearance trend. Dior’s muse and happy talisman, she was also fortunate to have been made a model by the famous couturier. Alla Ilchun was a kitchenmaid, but she might have become a waitress or a cook in a French restaurant. Her lucky break came when she attended a Christian Dior casting and was offered his top model role. During her lifetime, as well as later afterward, her origins remained secret. In Christian Dior’s memoirs, she was referred to as a Chinese or Manchurian fashion model.
Family background of Alla Ilchun
Ilchun and her mother arrived in France from Harbin, a Chinese city. The October Revolution drove them from their homes. Alla’s mother belonged to a noble family that lost all its money and had Chinese citizenship. She was the daughter of a Kazakh Bai. Alla was half-Russian and half-Kazakh. Nobody knew about her origin in Europe, and she didn’t discover it until two years before her death. They had a difficult time settling down in the French capital because it wasn’t friendly to immigrants. Her mother returned to her study of music, which she had studied in Russia, and sang in a lounge, while Alla got a job as a kitchen maid in a restaurant. Ilchun served as a nurse and signal-woman for the French partisan resistance in World War II.
Christian Dior’s Muse
At first sight, she won over Christian Dior. Designers were intrigued by her high waist (18.5″) and her womanly figure, as well as her exotic Asian face. Dior hired his first Asian model. Cristobal Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy followed suit soon after. A non-Western-looking woman was the focus of haute couture for the first time. Even Dior admitted that inviting a model from Asia to showcase European clothing was risky.
Nevertheless, this risk brought him unprecedented success. Christian Dior described Alla as his talisman and muse. She embodied the new look style. During the war years, women’s dress was simple, rude, and unfeminine. But for fashion designers and society, she was everything they needed – graceful, feminine, and with a thin waist. When Alla showed off a dress, it was immediately popular and was quickly sold out. The British Princess Margaret and actress Elizabeth Taylor were among the customers who purchased the dresses worn by Alla. She worked at Dior for 20 years. At this time, Dior’s successor was Yves Saint Laurent, followed by Marc Bohan and Christian Dior himself.
Alla Ilchun was a role model for beauty. Models and fashionistas attempted to mimic her style in the 1950s. They even had surgeries to make their eyes look like hers. She hypnotized the audience with her unique moves on the runway, her unique turn, and her mysterious and impenetrable glance. Her feminine fragility and grace made her the epitome of grace. Due to her high cheekbones and slanted eyes, women around the world began to imitate her. They tried to replicate the long arrows that emphasize her eyes. They remain in fashion today, but few realize that in the 1950s, Alla Ilchun was the first person to wear such unusual make-up.
Personal life
During one of her numerous photoshoots, Alla met Mike de Dülmen, the photographer for Dior. She later married him and had two sons. After her husband’s death, Ilchun did not remain without work; she worked closely with Yves Saint Laurent for another decade. Her second husband was Igor Mukhin, an amateur photographer from Russia.
When Alla Ilchun began to notice signs of aging on her face, she decided to retire from modeling. She wanted to stand out among the audience and fans as someone young and beautiful. After twenty years of working in the fashion industry, her waist has grown from 47 centimeters to 49, but her face and body had already displayed signs of maturity. She led a closed lifestyle after retiring from photoshoots. Alla Ilchun’s life story would have remained unknown with her in 1989 if it were not for a curious coincidence. Kazakh economist and diplomat Berlin Irishev accidentally saw a painting of Alla by Leon Zeitlin in Paris. A bit of information about this woman had previously caught his attention, and he became intrigued by the story. Berlin Irishev published his book ‘The Dior Muse’ because of his diligent work, search for information, and cooperation with French archives. The film ‘Alla, the Oriental Pearl of Dior’, which featured the story of Alla Ilchun was released in early 2020.
