Alla Ilchun

Alla Ilchun (10 December 1926 – 6 March 1989) was a China-born Kazakh fashion model who lived in France. A muse for Christian Dior, who referred to her as "his personal talisman", she was the first prominent Asian woman to model European fashions.

Biography Ilchun was born in Harbin, China in 1926. Her father, Kuantkhan Ilchun, was a railway engineer from a wealthy family in Kazakhstan. Her mother, Tamara, was a Russian opera singer and the daughter of a White Army officer. Due to political unrest in Harbin, with the city passing between the Chinese and the Japanese, the Ilchun family fled to France. During World War II, she joined the French Resistance. She was the first Asian model in the European fashion world.

While working as a model, she met photographer Mike de Dülmen. The two married and had one child.

After Dior's death, Ilchun worked closely with Yves Saint Laurent.

Legacy In 2020, a documentary film titled Alla – Dior’s Oriental Pearl was released by Berlin Irishev, president of AKF.