Alla Ilchun

Ilchun was born in Harbin, China in 1926. Her father, Kuantkhan Ilchun, was a railway engineer from a wealthy family in Kazakhstan.^[1] Her mother, Tamara, was a Russian opera singer and the daughter of a White Army officer.^[1][2][3] Due to political unrest in Harbin, with the city passing between the Chinese, Japanese, the Ilchun family fled to France.^[1] Her father was caught and sent to the Tokyo.

As a teenager, Ilchun worked as a dishwasher in a Parisian restaurant.^[1][4] During World War II, she joined the French Resistance.^[1]

Ilchun attended a model casting in Paris, as a favor to a friend, and was chosen by Christian Dior to work for the fashion house.^[1] She became a very successful model, and a muse for Dior, who referred to her as "his personal talisman".^[5][6] She was the first Asian model in the European fashion world.^[3]

While working as a model, she met the photographer Mike de Dülmen. The two married and had one children.^[1]

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

In 2020, a documentary film titled Alla – Dior’s Oriental Pearl was released by Berlin Irishev, president of AKF.^[3]

Berlin Irishev, Enigme Of Alla - The Muse Of Dior, Paris, 2021 Berlin Irishev, Alla - A Pearl Of The Orient At Dior, Pekin, 2022 Berlin Irishev, Alla - Iconic New Look Of Dior, New York, (expect in December)2023