Mathilde Favier (Paris, 1969-2026) liked to quote a phrase from Spinoza: “No one can desire to be happy, to act well, and to live well without at the same time desiring to be, to act, and to live, that is, to exist currently.” Favier, who was deaf in one ear because she was born without an eardrum and had survived cancer, lived until the end according to the premise of the Dutch philosopher. The public relations director of the maison Dior, considered the woman with the best agenda in Paris and a key figure in French fashion, died this Monday in a traffic accident in Deux-Sèvres, a bucolic department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. According to the newspaper Ouest France, which cites information from the Niort prosecutor’s office, her car was hit by a truck. Her partner, the well-known film producer Nicolas Altmayer, was traveling with her and also died in the accident.
According to initial reports, Favier and Altmayer’s vehicle collided with a truck traveling in the opposite direction on departmental road 938, around 4:00 p.m. this Monday. The investigation, opened for involuntary manslaughter, is ongoing to determine the exact circumstances of the incident. The news has shocked the fashion industry.
“Mathilde loved life passionately. With her death, Dior is losing an incredible professional and I have lost a loyal friend,” said Delphine Arnault, president and CEO of the Parisian fashion house, in a statement. “Her optimism and courage inspired admiration. We will miss her smile and her talent. Today I am deeply saddened. My thoughts are with her children, her mother, her sisters, her family, her friends, and her team,” added the executive and daughter of Bernard Arnault, founder of the luxury conglomerate LVMH.
“My heart is broken over Mathilde’s death,” wrote Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Dior, in another statement. “We owe so much to her work and dedication. She brought such warmth and energy and was the most positive person I have ever met and the one who lifted our spirits the most. Mathilde was the embodiment of elegance and, in many ways, the spirit of couture itself,” added the Northern Irish designer.
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Favier moved like a fish in water in the world of luxury. Daughter of the famous interior designer Françoise Favier and stepsister of designer Victoire de Castellane, creator of Dior’s high jewelry, she began working in the fashion industry at 14. Her uncle, Gilles Dufour, Karl Lagerfeld’s right-hand man at Chanel, took her out of the strict and elitist Lübeck convent school, where she shared a desk with Vanessa Seward, Camille Miceli, and Emmanuelle Alt, and introduced her to the colorful and more creative world of couture. Her first professional steps were as an intern and apprentice to Lagerfeld. The other intern in the office was Sofia Coppola.
“My uncle Gilles taught me to be natural and not to try to prove anything to anyone. Interesting people don’t need proof; they see everything for themselves. You have nothing to prove to them because they quickly understand who you are and what you carry inside,” she explained in an interview with EL PAÍS in April 2024, on the occasion of the publication of Mathilde à Paris (published in English as Living Beautifully in Paris), a book in which she detailed the charms of the city accompanied by close friends like Carla Bruni, whom she had known since childhood vacations in Cape Nègre, in southern France.
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About Lagerfeld, she recalled in that interview: “He was unique, one of the smartest people I have met. He was extremely cultured and had read a lot. I met him at a time when he lived on Rue de l’Université like a king, without electricity, only candlelight, and wearing large chemises de nuit. He taught me to observe people and to develop a sense of editing everything: ‘This is good, this is not good, I like this, I don’t like this.’ He taught me to be attracted to people who make a difference.”
That eye for observing and understanding people is what ultimately made her one of the most powerful public relations professionals in the world. Still a teenager, she left her studies to join Glamour magazine. Then she made the leap as a public relations professional to Prada and, in 2011, to Dior, where she worked with four creative directors, from John Galliano to Anderson. Favier oversaw relations with international stars, from Rihanna to Jennifer Lawrence.
“My mother always told my sisters and me: ‘Don’t forget, everyone pees in the same place.’ When you think like that, it’s hard to be impressed,” she explained in the conversation with EL PAÍS. She acknowledged being fortunate. “I have met incredible people from a very young age. The father of my daughters is a banker [the wealthy financier Robert Agostinelli], my fiancé is a film producer… The people I know have contacts. I use them to help others. If someone needs help, here I am. I’m getting older, like everyone, and in the end, that’s what life is about: helping.”
For Favier, a luxury icon, her greatest indulgence was privacy, intimacy. “It is a scarce good. I am a public person and my job involves dealing with people, but I like being at home,” she said. Solitude was another of her luxuries: “I don’t hear in one ear because I was born without an eardrum. So from day one, I live a bit in my own world. That other half of me is my best friend. We get along very well and are happy together.” She believed that good taste, elegance, was a “rare good.” “It’s not a matter of money or looks. It’s a mental matter.”
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