| Ginette Spanier | |
| Birth Date: | 7 March 1904 |
| Birth Place: | Paris, France |
| Birth Name: | Jenny Yvonne Spanier |
| Death Place: | London, England |
| Nationality: | French |
| Employer: | House of Balmain |
| Occupation: | Director of a fashion-house |
| Years Active: | 1947–1976 |
| Spouse: | Paul-Emile Seidmann |
Jenny Yvonne "Ginette" Spanier (7 March 1904 – April 1988) was director of the House of Balmain, a Paris fashion-house, and was decorated for her wartime work.
Spanier, who was Jewish, was born in Paris on 7 March 1904 and raised in Hampstead, London, England and attended Frognal School there.[1]
While in Paris as a buyer for Fortnum & Mason, she met Paul-Emile Seidmann, a doctor. In 1939, they married. Shortly afterwards, during World War II, they fled Nazi-occupied Paris by bicycle. She was subsequently awarded the Medal of Freedom for assisting the American Army of Liberation.[2] Seidmann was made a French: [[Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur]] for his work with concentration camp survivors.
After the war, the couple lived for many years on Paris' Avenue Maurice, and she became French: directrice (director) at Balmain from 1947 to 1976. The first of her two volumes of autobiography, It isn't All Mink (1959), had a foreword by Noël Coward,[3] the second volume, And Now It's Sables (1970), had one by Maurice Chevalier.
Spanier appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 21 June 1965.[4] The programme was not archived by the BBC, but an unofficial tape copy was among a collection of over 90 episodes discovered by an amateur researcher and placed online in 2022.[5] She was also the guest on This Is Your Life on 9 February 1972.
She retired, a widow, to London, and died there in April 1988.