Meanwhile, last year, Martina Navratilova announced her new relationship with Julia, who had evidently undergone a realignment of her sexual orientation. Brossard confessed to the killing and was sentenced by a Swiss court to over eight years in prison, from which she recently emerged after serving five. The next twist in the story came in 2005 when Stern, tied to a chair and wearing a latex body stocking, was shot by his mistress, Cecile Brossard, a former prostitute, during a sado-masochistic bondage session at his Geneva home. In time Julia’s suspicion nevertheless strengthened that her child had been murdered. The nanny later disappeared, and the police found signs of the baby having been shaken, but it was concluded there was not enough evidence for any prosecution and Maximilien had died from natural causes. Five and a half months later, the baby boy died in hospital, having been in the care of a Bulgarian nanny hired by Stern. In 1999 she bore Stern’s love-child, Maximilien, though he was reluctant to acknowledge any role in the boy’s paternity. It became manifest after 1997, the year in which she formed a relationship with Edouard Stern, a prominent member of an eminent Jewish banking family. She expanded from modelling into founding her own beauty company, called White Russian, and established a luxury spa in the rue de la Renaissance.īut among the many happy gifts destiny bestowed in her cradle, it seems there was one from a malign fairy. When, in the mid 1990s, she left London for Paris, the expectation was that an international career was about to blossom, and indeed this was the case. She then modelled a kaleidoscopic range of silk scarves for Mappin & Webb and John Swannell photographed her to promote a range of ‘friendship’ rings I had designed. After being shown in London, it went on to Edinburgh, where Julia set off another sparkle in the grey city as her gold dress caused a sensation and sent the photographers into a frenzy. The exhibition was a roaring success and attracted a great deal of publicity. Her beautifully formed features were in harmony with the whole effect a theatrical moment of extravaganza created with pure gold! Moving among the guests in this startling garment, she looked as if she had manifested herself from the world of tsarist fable, like a princess arriving for a coronation. It consisted of twenty-five metres of pure gold brocade, with tiara, veil and long train, and was valued at £180,000. I gladly incorporated her into the Celebration of Gold exhibition, for which she wore the 24-carat gold wedding dress, by the Japanese designer Yumi Katsura.
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With her dark hair and brown eyes, she was a beguiling Caucasian beauty, and her ambitions to build a career as a professional model looked likely to carry her far. Julia, the daughter of a high-ranking Soviet KGB general, had been declared the last ‘Miss Soviet Union’ before the collapse of the Soviet regime, and she was still only nineteen. I first met her about three weeks before the exhibition when she turned up at one my parties on the arm of the actor and writer Jeremy Lloyd, who had been Joanna Lumley’s first husband. The living centrepiece among all those riches, however, was Julia Lemigova. The press were there in force and were dazzled by the sheer impact of all that gold. It sold on the opening night for £10,860. Among the items was a gold wishbone choker with matching bracelet, rings and earrings. For my theme I chose a simplicity of line and a subtle eroticism. I did mine in collaboration with John Nix, a superb craftsman who managed the Asprey workshop. Some of these I was asked to design in company with seven other designers. That November, in association with the World Gold Council, we were planning a ‘Celebration of Gold’ exhibition at Mappin & Webb in Regent Street, to include such items as a seven-kilo nugget of gold found in Brazil, a Japanese dress of 24-carat gold, and many fabulous pieces of jewellery. I first met Julia in 1991 when I was chief executive of the Asprey Group and the market for luxury goods was in its hey-day. Julia Lemigova is in the news again, with the sensationalist headline in the Daily Mail of Saturday 20th November: ‘Tennis legend Martina, VIP orgies and the mystery of her model lover’s “murdered” baby.’
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