Yorn
Yorn is the name Christian Dior gave his young German assistant, Jürgen Michaelsen, who went on to found his own couture label in Paris.
Yorn was born Jürgen Michaelsen in Bremen in 1935. As a young man he went to Paris and became an assistant to Christian Dior, who gave him the name Yorn because it was easier for French speakers to say. He has worked under it ever since. He later founded his own couture label, with a studio on the Champs-Élysées, one of the few Germans to open a house within Paris haute couture. An exclusive contract with the German department store Karstadt then carried the Yorn name into wardrobes across Germany.
The house.
Yorn was born Jürgen Michaelsen in Bremen in 1935. As a young man he went to Paris and became an assistant to Christian Dior, who gave him the name Yorn because it was easier for French speakers to say. He has worked under it ever since.
He later founded his own couture label, with a studio on the Champs-Élysées, one of the few Germans to open a house within Paris haute couture. An exclusive contract with the German department store Karstadt then carried the Yorn name into wardrobes across Germany.
What the pieces show.
- 01Trained at DiorThe name itself came from Christian Dior.
- 02Paris coutureHis own label, with a studio on the Champs-Élysées.
- 03Known in GermanyBrought to German customers through an exclusive deal with Karstadt.
Read the piece,
not the name.
With a pre-owned Yorn coat or jacket, start with the composition label: pure cashmere should feel dense and soft rather than thin, and the share of fibre decides warmth more than the name does. Check the lining at the armholes, the buttonholes and the collar edge, and compare flat measurements with a piece that already fits you. Our Cashmere Story explains what good cashmere feels like in the hand.
Yorn in the archive.
About Yorn.
What is Yorn?
Yorn is the label of Jürgen Michaelsen, a German designer born in Bremen in 1935. Christian Dior, for whom he worked as an assistant in Paris, gave him the name Yorn.
Who named Yorn?
Christian Dior gave Jürgen Michaelsen the name Yorn because it was easier for French speakers to pronounce.
Where is Yorn from?
The label began in Paris couture; its designer, Jürgen Michaelsen, is German, and the name became widely known in Germany through Karstadt.