Fashion Designer. Though she created clothing for a large number of wealthy and high-placed clients, she shall be remembered for the roughly 1,000 outfits she made for Princess Diana. Born Catherine Marguerite Marie-Therese Baheux she obtained advanced degrees in philosophy from French universities prior to moving to England in 1970. After marriage to lawyer John Walker (deceased 1975), she taught herself to sew on a machine purchased with money she won on a bet and took some design courses. Walker began selling her own creations out of a basket on the Chelsea streets around 1976; gradually her Chelsea Design Company attracted notice and a number of well known customers. She began making fashions for Princess Diana shortly after the 1981 Royal wedding and was to continue until the Princess was buried in a black dress she had purchased from Walker shortly before her 1997 death. Usually shunning publicity and runway shows, she relied on word-of-mouth advertising, though she was named couture designer of the year at the 1990 British Fashion Awards. Renaming her business Catherine Walker & Company in 1994, she published a memoir titled "Catherine Walker: An autobiography by the private couturier of Diana, Princess of Wales" in 1998. She died after having had breast cancer since 1995. As her health worsened, she prepared others to take-over her company.
Fashion Designer. Though she created clothing for a large number of wealthy and high-placed clients, she shall be remembered for the roughly 1,000 outfits she made for Princess Diana. Born Catherine Marguerite Marie-Therese Baheux she obtained advanced degrees in philosophy from French universities prior to moving to England in 1970. After marriage to lawyer John Walker (deceased 1975), she taught herself to sew on a machine purchased with money she won on a bet and took some design courses. Walker began selling her own creations out of a basket on the Chelsea streets around 1976; gradually her Chelsea Design Company attracted notice and a number of well known customers. She began making fashions for Princess Diana shortly after the 1981 Royal wedding and was to continue until the Princess was buried in a black dress she had purchased from Walker shortly before her 1997 death. Usually shunning publicity and runway shows, she relied on word-of-mouth advertising, though she was named couture designer of the year at the 1990 British Fashion Awards. Renaming her business Catherine Walker & Company in 1994, she published a memoir titled "Catherine Walker: An autobiography by the private couturier of Diana, Princess of Wales" in 1998. She died after having had breast cancer since 1995. As her health worsened, she prepared others to take-over her company.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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