Christian Dior

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Christian Dior was a French designer born into a wealthy family, always taking on creative ventures throughout his youth. In 1938 he became an assistant designer to Robert Piguet, four years later moving on to join the house of designer Lucien Lelong. Dior went on to start his own fashion house, backed by Marcel Boussac, a French entrepreneur.

In 1947, at his very first show, Dior introduced the revolutionary New Look. The design sparked controversy as it was such a drastically different silhouette from what was seen at the time and due to the gratuitous amount of fabric used for each piece. It featured small shoulders, a cinched waist with a voluminous skirt which completely diverts from the former style of padded shoulders and short skirts of World War II times. The New Look was named by Harper’s Bazaar and it completely redefined fashion creating an impact to this day, used by many brands, it is a classic, flattering silhouette on most bodies. From Dior’s first show the Bar Jacket was also debuted, quickly becoming a brand classic along with the New Look. It features the shape of the New Look and is still reimagined in collections to this today. There seems to be an iteration of the Bar Jacket in every collection since the fashion house’s creation. Both of these designs are so important to the brand as it stands for exactly what Dior himself stands for, femininity, the female form and luxury for women.

After Christian Dior’s untimely death, Yves Saint Laurent was made his successor, followed by Marc Bohan after he was drafted to war. Then Gianfranco Ferré took on the role, then John Galliano. Raf Simons after that until he abruptly quit and for a short amount of time the understudies Lucie Meier and Serge Ruffieux were leading. Finally the current creative director was named, Maria Grazia Chiuri.

“A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture, designed to enhance the proportions of the female body.” - Christian Dior (1905-1957)

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