Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L’Oreal before penning the New York Times and internationally bestselling novel The Paris Orphan. She is also the author of the USA Today bestseller The Paris Seamstress. When she’s not writing, she loves collecting vintage fashion, traveling, reading, practicing yoga and playing with her three children. Natasha lives in Perth, Western Australia. Visit her website at www.natashalester.com.au.
The Gloss Book Club: What can you tell our members about your novel, The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard?
Natasha Lester: Astrid Bricard, daughter of Christian Dior’s legendary muse, arrives in Manhattan determined to make her mark on the fashion world, but not in the role of muse like her mother. She does make her mark very quickly—but just not in the way she’d hoped for. Then on the eve of the fashion battle at Versailles, just as Astrid seems to be about to get everything she ever wanted, she vanishes, leaving behind only a white silk dress and the question: what happened to Astrid Bricard?
You’ll have to read the book to find out!
TGBC: Where did the inspiration for The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard come from?
NL: The incredible Battle of Versailles that took place at the Palace of Versailles in November 1973. This was a battle for fashion supremacy between five French couturiers and five American fashion designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Oscar de la Renta and Halston. Everyone expected the French to win – they invented couture, after all – but the Americans took out the crown. The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard opens in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on the eve of that battle.
TGBC: What kind of research did you do for this novel and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
NL: I was writing The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard during COVID, so I couldn’t travel, but luckily I’d been to the Palace of Versailles many times and could pull out all my photos and use them to help me write the scenes set there. I was also very lucky that archivists from all around the world answered my emails and, because travel was impossible, went to great lengths to send me letters, articles and other documents from their archives that helped me write about all the many real people who inhabit my book – everyone from Bianca Jagger to Christian Dior’s infamous and so-called muse, Mizza Bricard.
TGBC: France is clearly a love of yours. Most of your books are set in Paris or France, why is it so special to you?
NL: I speak the language almost fluently, and have been learning it since I was thirteen. I also worked for a French company—L’Oreal—for a number of years. I think my love of France comes from a love of the language. And given I have to spend so much time translating research documents from French to English in order to write my books, I’m very grateful to thirteen year old Natasha for deciding to learn French!
TGBC: The book is triple timeline, how do you manage that? Do you write one entire story or go back and forth between 1917, 1970, and present day?
NL: I always write one storyline/one point of view at a time. Usually, I write the historical thread first, but with this one, I started with Blythe in contemporary times, mainly because I was still researching Mizza’s story and because the 1970s was new to me as a writer, and I was a bit nervous! So I needed to start with something I felt confident with, and that was Blythe. Part of her story is based on something that really happened to me–my father-in-law rented a French chateau back in 2018 for his enormous family of thirty people to celebrate his birthday. It was winter, and it was freezing cold and the chateau was very poorly heated, so we spent a week bundled up in coats, scarves, gloves and beanies, even when we were inside! It was a simultaneously uncomfortable and hilarious experience that I decided to give to Blythe, but with a number of added complications, of course!
TGBC: I read an interview with you when you said “I love bringing to life the forgotten women of history”, this is so special and quite a calling – can you expand on this further?
NL: There are so many women who did so many incredible things throughout history and without those women fighting and challenging the status quo, I probably wouldn’t have the freedoms I have today as a woman. Those freedoms are so precious and were so hard fought for that I can’t bear for their stories to remain unknown. And I want all women to understand why it’s necessary to continue fighting for equality and to protect our rights—if we don’t, we’re essentially saying the sacrifices that women have made throughout history were in vain, and I don’t believe that for one minute.
TGBC: The cover of The Disappearance Of Astrid Bricard is specially stunning, did you have any hand in that?
NL: I didn’t have a hand in it at all, but that cover is an amazing moment of serendipity! When I was writing the book, I needed inspiration for a dress that Astrid makes in 1972. I wanted it to be a beautiful silvery-blue color and none of the pictures of 70s dresses in my research library were giving me the right vibe. So I searched the internet and found and fell in love with a silvery-blue Nina Ricci dress that Sarah Jessica Parker wore to the New York premiere of Sex and the City in 2008. The pleats in the dress have a very 70s Halston feel, so it was absolutely perfect to inspire Astrid’s dress in my book. And then my publisher sent me the cover for THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD and the cover looks almost exactly like the dress SJP wore and that Astrid makes in the story. And funnily enough, the cover image is actually of Sarah Jessica Parker, but in a different dress—a Halston Heritage gown she wore to the Met Gala in 2010. With all those magical connections, I immediately knew the cover was an absolute winner!
TGBC: When you start writing a new book, what is your goal? What do you aim to invoke in your readers?
NL: I want them to feel something. To me, the worst possible reaction is when a reader finishes the book with just a shrug and then immediately forgets about the story. I’d almost rather they hated it! At least that way you’ve made them feel something. But I also hope to inspire readers, and it’s one of the greatest compliments when a reader tells me that my stories have inspired them.
TGBC: What does your writing process look like? Do you have a special place you write?
NL: My writing process is very chaotic! I don’t plan at all. I just sit down with the germ of an idea and start to write. And I always write in my beautiful office that has silver, pink and blue Florence Broadhurst wallpaper, French doors that open out onto a garden and an entire wall of bookshelves. It’s a very inspiring place.
TGBC: Any advice you can share with the aspiring writers within our community? What advice would you give to your younger self?
NL: To believe in myself a little more. If you want to write a book and you make the time to sit down and do it, then there’s no reason why you can’t be the next New York Times bestseller.