Christian Dior: 70 Years of the Iconic House
Over the past 70 years, the House of Dior has become synonymous with Haute Couture and all that it stands for. The company was founded in 1946 by Christian Dior, a man who has come to represent the pinnacle of design. Following a degree in political science and stints managing art galleries, Dior got his start as a fashion illustrator and began producing sketches for milliners, couturiers and newspapers. He was eventually brought on as a design assistant for the Swiss designer Robert Piguet and went to work as a junior designer for fashion house Lucien Lelong following his service in World War II, where he would remain for the following five years.
While working at Lucien Lelong, Dior sought the help of a friend, industrialist Marcel Boussac, to help breathe life into his dream of running his own clothing company. Boussac was known as the “King of Cotton” and had investments in textile mills, making Dior’s vision of billowing skirts and excess use of fabric appealing to the wealthy investor. Boussac originally asked Dior to become Artistic Director of fashion house Philippe et Gaston. The offer intrigued Dior, but he was uncertain, knowing that he had great potential and that he could possibly do something remarkable if he instead opened his own design house.
Eventually it was the indirect influence of a childhood friend, Georges Vigouroux, that convinced him to pursue his dreams of running his own house. While walking up the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Dior nearly tripped over an object that would come to symbolise his legacy: a star. He noticed he was near the city’s British Embassy, causing him to think of his childhood in Normandy, across from the British Isles, and his friend Vigouroux. The heeds of Dior’s friend Vigouroux to pursue his own destiny rang true, and Dior told Boussac that he would open his own fashion house, “where everything would be new, from the state of mind and the staff to the furniture and premises”. Boussac invested an unprecedented 60 million Francs in launching Dior’s couture house which went on to be one of, if not the, biggest influence on post-war fashion.
This idea of premonition and superstition came to be nearly ingrained in the founding ideals of Dior. Madam Delahaye, a fortune teller, had predicted that Dior’s sister Catherine, who had been deported from France, would return between June 1944 and May 1945. The vision proved true, and the young member of the French Resistance was liberated at the end of the war. That same fortune teller would push Dior to open his eponymous house: “Accept! she ordered me, accept!” wrote Dior. “You must create the house of Christian Dior. Whatever the initial conditions, anything that they could offer you later on could not compare to the chance of today!”
Along with sixty staff, Dior launched the 1947 spring-summer collection including a post-war silhouette featuring rounded shoulders, padded hips, boned bodices and full-length skirts that were said to embody the notions of femininity and luxury within the fashion world. In this collection, which was coined as the New Look collection by Harper’s Bazaar’s editor-in-chief, Carmel Snow, was the major shift in post-war fashion in the late forties. In this collection, the iconic Bar Suit was brought to life.
This would be the beginning of a career that saw Dior shake up the Haute Couture world, with his twice-yearly collections frequently being worn by movie stars, Royalty and the elite around the world. His operation soon became a global affair: he opened his American branch of the company, Christian Dior – New York, Inc., in 1948, with outlets in London and Venezuela soon following. Before long, he had license contracts with department stores in Australia, Mexico, Canada, Cuba and Chile.
Dior soon began including producing accessories like stockings, gloves, millinery, perfume and jewelry. The design house was revered for its pioneering approach to fashion, with Dior driving what is seen by many as an international renaissance of French couture. As Dior himself once famously said “Women, with their intuitive instinct, understood that I dreamed not only of making them more beautiful, but happier too.”
From Dior’s first groundbreaking show in 1947 came the New Look, including rounded shoulders, cinched waists, and full, A-line skirt, typified by the distinctly feminine Bar Suit. People the world over became enamored with Dior’s style and attempted to emulate it. To stay ahead, Dior changed his approach every year – his 1948 collection, for example, looked more towards embroideries and an emphasised neckline. In 1949, Dior released a fall collection that paid homage to Roman mythology: dresses were embellished with ombréed petals, rhinestones, sequins and pearls.
After Dior’s initial trips to the United States, his style in the 1950’s began to take on more streamlined and modest elements while still retaining characteristics of his New Look. A newly-found simplicity came to dominate his collections in 1951, before sharp contours and a stark rigidity made were found on his 1952 garments.
His style continued to evolve sharply throughout the 1950’s, making its way from minimalist in the middle of the decade to a boxier look later on. Still, his garments were always in high demand. By 1957, just a decade after he opened his house, Dior became the first couturier to appear on the cover of Time magazine, cementing his place as a leading fashion icon. His sudden death came that year, with Yves Saint Laurent taking over and transitioning the brand into the youthfulness of the 1960’s.
Most recently with a new designer at the helm, the brand has shown the fashion world that the passion and unbridled creativity of Christian Dior continues. The SS17 Haute Couture collection was a testament to the fashion house’s knack for developing a fantasy world of intricate, groundbreaking and sometimes wild garments that push the boundaries of contemporary dress. The debut collection by lead designer Maria Grazia Chiuri evoked a fairytale aesthetic that included long, elegant dresses, floral accessories and Dior’s signature Bar Jackets revisited as capes with pleated skirts, lace tops and wide-leg, ankle-length culotte trousers. The pieces within the collection were both incredibly complex yet wearable, inhabiting the modest ethos of Chiuri herself.
Showcasing her second Haute Couture collection for Dior with the AW17 collection, Chiuri was at the Hôtel des Invalides channeling the energy of Dior himself. The lead designer again reimagined Dior’s famous Bar Jacket and presented men’s brogues with lug-soled ankle boots and other impressive garments. Chiuri tapped Pietro Ruffo to design the set for the show – the Italian artist’s décor evoked notions of world travel, with runways corresponding to different continents, each embodied by an animal from that place.
Now, as Dior celebrates its 70th anniversary, spaces around the globe will be looking back on the history of the company, as well as its place today in high fashion. We focus on two which highlight the essence of the brand and showcases key milestones from the 70 years.
Now running at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, a grand retrospective that opened in early July and features more than 300 dresses from Dior’s own archives, as well as loans from private collections and museums. The show, Dior’s biggest retrospective to date, was curated by French fashion historian Florence Müller, including 23 separate themes each with dedicated rooms looking at the work of creative directors that worked under Christian Dior, including Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano – and Chiuri.
Each room aims to evoke a certain setting – a garden, a boudoir or a gallery, for example – all leading to a recreation of the Hall of Mirrors at the Palais de Versailles. Private letters, accessories, tools and unseen works make the show truly a momentous occasion for the fashion world.
In Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria will present The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture at NGV International from Sunday 27 August to Tuesday 7 November 2017. Being shown exclusively in Melbourne, the exhibition will feature more than 140 garments from Christian Dior Couture designed between the house’s opening in 1947 and 2017. The well-known Spring 1947 “New Look” collection will be represented, along with sumptuous displays of Dior’s iconic ball gowns and evening dresses.
The show will trace the history of the monumental fashion house, including Dior’s early breakthroughs, the design codes that go hand-in-hand with Dior and the creative achievements of Dior’s six successive designers.
The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture will also explore Dior’s unique relationship with Australia. On display will be the Spring 1948 fashion at David Jones, Sydney – which included fifty original creations by Christian Dior – was said to be the first complete Dior collection to be shown outside of Paris.
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