Ginette Spanier

Jenny Yvonne "Ginette" Spanier (7 March 1904 – 1 April 1988 ) was a French director of the House of Balmain, a Paris fashion-house, and was decorated for her wartime work.

Early life Spanier, who was Jewish, was born in Paris on 7 March 1904 and raised in Hampstead, London, England and attended Frognal School there.

War years While in Paris as a buyer for Fortnum & Mason, she met Paul-Emile Seidmann, a doctor. In 1939, they married. Seidmann was made a for his work with concentration camp survivors. the second volume, And Now It's Sables (1970), had one by Maurice Chevalier.

Spanier appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 21 June 1965. The programme was not archived by the BBC, but an unofficial tape copy was among a collection of over 90 episodes discovered by an amateur researcher and placed online in 2022. She was also the guest on This Is Your Life on 9 February 1972.

Death She retired, a widow, to London, and died there in April 1988.