"The detail is as important as the essential is. When it is inadequate, it destroys the whole outfit." Christian Dior
Only two years after the end of World War II, the French couturier presented a collection that symbolized not only a departure from previous styles, but the beginning of a new society.
"It's quite a revolution, dear Christian! Your dresses have such a new look!" Carmel Snow, the former editor-in-chief of the American edition of "Harper's Bazaar," said these words after Dior's debut fashion show in Paris, on February 12, 1947. And the legend was born.
After the war period of utilitarian attires and vestiary austerity, perhaps nothing felt newer than Dior's vision. His first collection rejected the modern course of dressing established in the 1920s and 30s, which intended to liberate women from the restrictive sculptural volumes and corsets of early 20th-century fashion. Instead, he presented an image of radical femininity, achieved by tight-fitting jackets with padded hips, petite waists, and A-line skirts.
We thought it was time to look closer at the inimitable House of Dior. Here are a few things you might not have known.
You’ll find flowers in every collection! The floral theme goes back to Christian Dior’s childhood. The garden created by his mother Madeleine in their Granville family home gave him a love of flowers that stayed with him throughout his life. The young boy would pour over the Vilmorin-Andrieux gardening catalogues that taught him everything about the flora he wished to tame.
Christian Dior with Dorothy Emms, 1952
When he entered the world of Haute Couture, he did not forget the scent of his childhood flowers, incorporating them into his collections. And they brought him success, in the form of the New Look and its flower-woman with her full corolla-shaped skirt and narrow calyx-like bodice. The Dior style was beautifully defined by flowers, his dresses scattered with individual blooms or bouquets, embroidered with meadow flowers or draped in the shape of a rose, like the Opéra Bouffe gown.
Just like the impressionist painters, Christian Dior liked to draw his collections outdoors, in his garden at Milly-la-Forêt or La Colle Noire, surrounded by his silent muses. This theme carried on long after he was at the helm of Dior, as Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré and John Galliano, all keen gardeners, also decked the House of Dior collections in flowers. Raf Simons created double face dresses, one side strewn with traditionally embroidered flowers, the other with contemporary floral ornaments for his first collection.
From his childhood spent in Granville, Normandy, Christian Dior dreamed of studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but his parents categorically refused: in the highly-codified world of the early 20th century, such a bohemian undertaking was regarded as beneath his social class. So he enrolled in the suitably establishment Sciences Po school, but it wasn’t long before he was mixing with the avant-garde crowd. He left Sciences Po without a degree, and decided, once his military service had ended, to open an art gallery in 1928, with Jacques Bonjean and then Pierre Colle.
In front of House of Dior
When the House of Dior was inaugurated in 1947, a crowd of artists and collectors came to admire the creations of the man they knew from his years running art galleries. Christian Dior paid tribute to the established and up-and-coming artists whose work he used to exhibit in his galleries by designing dresses inspired by Picasso, Braque, and Bérard. This close relationship to the art world has always marked the history of the House of Dior. It forms part of Monsieur Dior’s legacy to his successors,
Raf Simons also explored contemporary art through his collaboration with Californian artist Sterling Ruby. Together they revisited the Spray Paintings series with a collection of dresses that transpose the layer of paint into shadow print satin.
Today, The House of Christian Dior remains one of the most important leaders in the world of fashion, continuing over 70 years of success.