Marc Bohan, the creative force behind Christian Dior’s most iconic collections for three decades, died on Sept. 6 at age 97 in Châtillon-sur-Seine, France.

According to a public notice on the site Libra Memoria, religious services are scheduled for Sept. 13 at the Saint-Nicolas church, to be followed by a cremation.

Bohan was the longest-serving designer at Dior, longer than even founder Christian Dior himself.

An intensely private man, known for an even-keeled nature and for a proclivity for designing clothes for “real women,” he often boasted of an affinity for a “timeless notion of beauty.

“I make clothes for real women, not myself, not for mannequins and not for fashion magazines,” he said in an interview with WWD on the occasion of his 25th anniversary at Dior. “I gladly leave the abstract creations to others.”

See more at the link in bio.

Photos: Fairchild Archive
Report: Lorna Koski