Mathilde Favier Honored: Fashion Icons Gather in Paris Tribute

PARIS — Family, friends and colleagues gathered Monday to pay their last respects to Mathilde Favier, the beloved Dior public relations executive who dressed celebrities ranging from Rihanna to Celine Dion, and was celebrated as a symbol of Parisian elegance and style.

French First Lady Brigitte Macron joined Bernard Arnault and members of his family at the ceremony at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where a crowd gathered to watch the arrivals of a who’s who of powerful people from across the worlds of culture, politics and industry, all of whom gravitated around the renowned tastemaker and hostess.

Dior chairman and chief executive officer Delphine Arnault was joined by Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson, as well as senior LVMH executives Antoine Arnault, Alexandre Arnault, Pietro Beccari, Sidney Toledano, Olivier Bialobos, Véronique Courtois, Damien Bertrand, Jean-Charles Tréhan and Maud Alvarez-Pereyre.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, attended alongside Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Schiffer, Pierre Casiraghi, Beatrice Borromeo, Marisa Berenson, Camille Cottin, Amira Casar, Liya Kebede, Guillaume de Seynes, Jean-François Piège, Elie Top, Roschdy Zem, Farida Khelfa and Clotilde Courau, among others.

The service began with tributes by Favier’s sisters Victoire de Castellane, creative director of Dior jewelry, and Pauline Favier-Henin, founder of lifestyle brand Bloom Paris, who emphasized her sunny disposition and capacity for joy.

“The quintessential Parisian, a consummate professional, a wonderful friend, a great lover,” Favier-Henin said, listing her sister’s qualities and strong family bonds. “An extraordinary hostess, an excellent cook — the girl who loved to laugh, dance and sing. With you, there was never a problem: you always found a solution, for everything and everyone.”

Favier had moved in fashion circles since her teens, when her uncle Gilles Dufour got her an internship at Chanel, where he worked alongside Karl Lagerfeld. She cut short her studies to join Glamour magazine before eventually moving into public relations at Prada and then Dior, where she oversaw celebrity relations for 15 years, straddling several creative directors.

Favier’s wicker casket was covered in armfuls of pink and white flowers, echoing the funeral program, which showed her embracing a bouquet. The portrait was borrowed from the cover of her 2024 coffee table book “Living Beautifully in Paris,” which showcased her exquisite taste and illustrious circle of friends.

Many of those featured in the book were present at the service, including high school classmates such as designer Vanessa Seward and stylist Emmanuelle Alt, and friends including Alexandra Golovanoff, Sofia Achaval de Montaigu, Lorena Vergani, Isabella Capece Galeota, Morin Oluwole, Jeanne Damas and Alexandra Van Houtte.

Favier’s two children with American businessman Robert Agostinelli, Héloïse and Carlo, said they were buoyed by the outpouring of tributes since their mother and her partner, French film producer Nicolas Altmayer, perished in a car accident on Aug. 17.

“I often felt I had to share you with too many people. You were so radiant, so full of light, that you had a kind of healing power within you. Mummy was life itself so naturally, everyone wanted a little piece of Mathilde. In the two weeks since you left us, you have wrapped me in love through all those who loved you, and I am so grateful to each and every one of you for being here,” Heloïse Agostinelli said.

Carlo Agostinelli pledged to carry forward his mother’s values. “She wanted you to live, laugh, love, travel, make mistakes, build something that is yours and one day, you can tell your children who their grandmother was,” he told his sister.

Favier once said her obsession with finding beauty might come across as superficial, but she saw it as a way of life.

“It’s a way to avoid what is sad and ugly, because life spares no one,” the 57-year-old, who was twice divorced before finding love with Altmayer, told WWD. “I think it’s also structural. Some people see the glass half full instead of half empty. I think I was made to focus on the positive things in life.”

Father Antoine Emmanuel highlighted how Favier’s powerful Catholic faith sustained her during her battle against cancer. South African opera singer Pretty Yende, a Dior ambassador, closed the service with an emotional rendition of Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”

As Favier’s and Altmayer’s coffins were carried out of the church under a gray sky, the assembled mourners stood and clapped.