Mathilde Favier, Dior’s director of public relations, died Monday in a car accident in western France. She was 57. The crash also killed Nicolas Altmayer, 61, a producer whose name was tied to some of French cinema’s best-known recent films.
The deaths are being searched now because Favier was not just a Dior executive on the payroll. She was one of the people who helped shape the brand’s public face, working closely with Natalie Portman, Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, Anya Taylor-Joy, Camille Cottin and Jisoo. She joined Dior in 2011 after working at Prada, later became director of public relations for Dior Couture, and in 2024 published Mathilde à Paris with journalist Frédérique Dedet. Bernard Arnault said she had devoted so many years of her life to her passion, energy and talent.
The crash happened at around 4 p.m. on a departmental road in Airvault in the Deux-Sèvres region. The vehicle they were in struck a heavy goods vehicle traveling in the opposite direction while overtaking another vehicle. That detail matters because it shows the collision was not a simple rear-end impact or a single-vehicle loss of control; it happened in the split second when one vehicle moved into a lane meant for oncoming traffic. What remains unknown is why that maneuver ended in a head-on collision.
An investigation for involuntary manslaughter by a driver has been opened, which is the normal legal step when a road death may have involved a driving error. Le Figaro reported that Altmayer and Favier were traveling from Cabourg to the Île de Ré, where Favier owned a home. Altmayer was one of the most prominent independent producers in France, behind the OSS 117 franchise and films by François Ozon, Bertrand Bonello and Julia Ducournau, and he and his brother Éric Altmayer ran Mandarin & Compagnie.
For Dior, the loss reaches beyond one executive. Favier was the sister of Dior Joaillerie creative director Victoire de Castellane and a longtime public-facing figure inside the house, the kind of executive who linked a luxury brand to its celebrities, guests and image. For Altmayer’s circle, colleagues said the same thing in different words: Fabien Onteniente called him a great producer, and François Ozon said he was a supporter and a friend. The investigation will now determine whether the overtaking maneuver was a mistake, a misjudgment or something else entirely.
