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A note from the vendeuse at Dior addressed to “Miss Coleman” sits at the front of a large book of several sketches sent to a debutante in 1966 with options for dresses that she could have personally made.

Ms. Chiu remembers surprising a “vendeuse”—the French term for saleswoman that’s widely used in haute couture salons—by questioning a price.

In a series of recorded luncheons, which continued until Ms. Chelot died in 2006 at the age of 95, the vendeuse shared her trove of memories with the author, supplying her with bushels of rustling anecdotes to appliqué onto Balenciaga’s curiously seamless life.

And Gilline took her viola and sang in French this song: Au son de la viole, Je chante nuit et jour; Je suis la fille-folle, La vendeuse d’amour.

Au son de la viole, Je chante nuit et jour; Je suis la fille-folle, La vendeuse d’amour.