Christian Dior

He was one of the most influential designers of the 1950s, and now, hes given rise to an empire of fashion, from which France regained its reputation as the Fashion Capital

1905

1923

1928

1931

1938 1939

1941

Born in Granville on the Gulf of St Malo on the Normandy coast, as the second of five children a wealthy fertiliser manufacturer. To please his father, Dior studies at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques to prepare to join the diplomatic corps. Opens a modern art gallery, Galerie Jacques Bonjean, with a friend and financial backing from his father. The Dior family business folds in the depression. Forced to close the gallery, Dior scrapes a living by selling his art collection and fashion sketches to couturiers. The couturier Robert Piguet employs Dior as a design assistant at his new couture house. When World War II begins, Dior is called up into the French Army, but is demobilized after a year when France. Returns to Paris to work as a design assistant to Lucien Lelong.

Life

1946 1947 1948 1950

1954 1955 1956 1957

After World War II ends, Dior persuades the industrialist Marcel Boussac to back him in the opening of his own couture house to be managed by the civil servant Jacques Rout. On 12 February Dior presents his debut couture collection, which is an instant success dubbed the New Look for its voluptuous silhouette and luxurious fabrics. Launch of the first Dior perfume, Miss Dior. Dior and Rout open a ready-to-wear boutique in New York and, over the next few years, launch new perfumes and negotiate the licensing rights for Christian Dior hosiery, ties and other products. Designs a dress for Marlene Dietrich in Alfred Hitchcocks Stage Fright and, the following year, a suit for Dietrich in No Highway in the Sky. After years of variations on the New Look, Dior unveils his new direction, the French Bean Line or Flat Look. Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent joins Dior as a design assistant. The Grande Boutique opens on Avenue Montaigne and Dior launches a cosmetics range. Designs over a dozen dresses for Ava Gardner in The Little Hut. Christian Dior dies of a heart attack after choking on a fishbone. Yves Saint Laurent is named as Diors successor and unveils his first collection in January 1958.

Career
After leaving the army, Dior joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Christian Dior dressed the wives of the Nazi officers and French collaborators. On 8 October 1946 Dior founded his own fashion house, backed by Marcel Boussac, the cottonfabric magnate.

 Boussac met Dior and listened to his theory that the public was ready for a new style after the War that involved sumptuous silhouette and billowing skirts. Boussac agreed to launch the new couture house in style The first Christian Dior couture show was scheduled for 12 February 1947. The actual name of the line of his first collection, was Corolle (the botanical term corolla or circlet of flower petals; in English). Clothes were still scarce and women wore the sharp-shouldered suits with knee-length skirts that they had cobbled together as makeshift wartime versions of Elsa Schiaparellis slinky 1930s silhouette.

Silhouette adapted by Dior

Elsa Schiaparellis 1930s silhouette

The New Look or Corolle Line was a great moment in fashion history in that it helped to end wartime austerity and re-launch fashion onto the worlds stage. Its impact and influence are still in evidence in fashion today.

His couture house was inundated with orders. Rita Hayworth, the actress picked out an evening gown for the premire of her new movie, Gilda. The ballerina, Margot Fonteyn, bought a suit. Dior put Paris back on the fashion map. The US couture clients came back in force for the autumn 1947 collections and Dior was invited to stage a private presentation of that seasons show for the British royal family in London. As other couturers diversified into other products, like hosiery and perfume; Dior also took the initiative by taking advantage of the New Look Dior opened a fur subsidiary and a ready-to-wear boutique on New Yorks Fifth Avenue as well as launching a Dior perfume, named Miss Dior with the US market in mind.

Throughout the 1950s Christian Dior was the biggest and best-run haute couture house in Paris. The closest rivals were Pierre Balmain, and the enigmatic Spanish designer, Cristobl Balenciaga. The biggest clients were North American: Hollywood stars, New York socialites and department store buyers who bought the exclusive rights to individual designs to be made up by their own seamstresses. Discount clothing chains, like Ohrbachs, were allowed to attend the shows on condition that they bought a minimum number of outfits, which they were then allowed to copy stitch for stitch into knock-off lines. Dior died of a heart attack after choking on a fishbone at dinner. The French newspaper Le Monde hailed him as a man who was identified with good taste, the art of living and refined culture that epitomizes Paris to the outside world.

The Impact
France emerged from World War II in ruins. Half a million buildings were destroyed. Clothes, coal and food were in short supply. Yet there were ample opportunities for new business ventures and fashion was no exception. The Paris couture trade, which had dominated international fashion since the late 18th century, was in a precarious state. What it needed was excitement and Christian Dior delivered it in a collection of luxurious clothes with soft shoulders, waspy waists and full flowing skirts intended for what he called flower women.

The New Look was absolutely appropriate for the post-war era. Dior was correct in assuming that people wanted something new after years of war, brutality and hardship. His new look was reminiscent of the Belle Epoque ideal of long skirts, tiny waists and beautiful fabrics that his mother had worn in the early 1900s. Such a traditional concept of femininity also suited the political agenda. Women had been mobilized during the war to work on farms and in factories while the men were away fighting. In peacetime those women were expected to return to passive roles as housewives and mothers, leaving their jobs free for the returning soldiers. The official paradigm of post-war womanhood was a capable, caring housewife who created a happy home for her husband and children. Diors flower women fitted the bill perfectly.

Style Statement
Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form. The hem of the skirt was very flattering on the calves and ankles, creating a beautiful silhouette.

 After Diors death, Yves Saint Laurent was named heir of Christian Dior, and he developed a collection in which the clothes were as meticulously made and perfectly proportioned as Diors in the same exquisite fabrics, but their young designer made them softer, lighter and easier to wear. When Galliano too over launched his spring/summer 1997 collection, he took classic Dior themes and spun them together with exotic African Masai tribal forms to create silk evening dresses accented with colorful beaded choker necklaces. The collection presented a younger image yet remained glamorous and refined, definitely worthy of the Dior name.

Haut Couture

 Today, his push for a more contemporary, sexier image has proven at times to be a difficult and frightening change at Dior. Galliano has brought excitement and fun to haute couture, and customer interest may be his best vindicationby 2001 Dior sales had doubled since the arrival of Galliano four years earlier. The everinventive Galliano will continue to hold the fashion world's attention and certainly keep it guessing for years to come.

Other Dior
Perfume Fine Jewelry Phones Time Pieces Accessories Make-Up Eye Wear Skincare Shoes Hand Bags Aside from Couture and Haut Couture, Dior provides a rich variety of other products, ranging from perfumes to cell phones.