Christian Dior and the 1947 "New Look" Christian Dior and the 1947 "New Look" Christian Dior and the 1947 "New Look" French designer defined post-World War II fashion and the female silhouette Christian Dior, 1949. Hulton Archive/Getty Images By Jennifer Nicole Sullivan Updated January 30, 2016. Fresh at the helm of Dior, Raf Simons presented his debut spring/summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection with a silhouette from the past, the "New Look," that designer Christian Dior made famous in 1947. The post-World War II hourglass shape exaggerated the female form with its structured bodice, tiny nipped-in waist, and long circle skirts that used several yards of fabric, unlike the slim, fabric-rationed skirts that women wore during wartime. In Simons’s collection, models channeled classic Dior femininity in long voluminous floral skirts and simple black shirts, some long-sleeved and some short-sleeved with an oh-so Parisian black scarf tied around the neck.

These "New Look"-inspired ensembles seemed like a nod of appreciation from Simons to the brand’s original couturier. About Christian Dior Christian Dior was born January 21, 1905, in Granville, France, a town on the coast of Normandy, to a wealthy chemical fertilizer manufacturer. He attended the School of Political Science of the University of Paris with intentions of entering a career in diplomacy. continue reading below our video Jean Styles You Can Wear All Year Around At 23, he became an art dealer instead and was said to have exhibited art by his friends Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau . During the Great Depression, his family lost much of their wealth, so Dior began illustrating hats for The Figaro Illustrated. His hat designs struck a chord with Parisian women and local milliner Place Vendome, which ordered Dior’s collections. After designing briefly for designer Robert Piguet, Dior served in the French Army as a private first class in the Engineers in World War II. When he returned, Dior designed for Lucien Lelong in 1941.

The House of Dior On December 16, 1946, the House of Dior was born; the same year the French Ministry of Production lifted cloth rations. French cotton millionaire Marcel Boussac backed Dior and his salon. Because Dior reestablished France as the center of the fashion world after World War II, the French Government awarded him the Legion of Honor for his accomplishments. Dior, who always wore conservative suits and ties, was nicknamed "Cri-Cri" by close friends. The hard-working designer reportedly went into seclusion twice a year and sketched new designs while soaking in his bathtub. Maison Dior is still located in its original home at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris. Dior's "New Look" Presented in early 1947, Dior’s first collection was titled "Corolle" which means corolla , connected flower petals — an apt name to describe the collection of voluminous skirts that enveloped women like flowers. Coined by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow, the "New Look" steered completely clear of the austere wartime silhouettes constructed with shorter hemlines due to rationed fabric.

The "New Look" was a return to femininity, even heightened femininity with its structured bustier bodices, nipped-in waists, peplums and full skirts that flared out from the waist and created an exaggerated hourglass figure. Dior later wrote: "We were emerging from the period of war, of uniforms, of women-soldiers built like boxers. I drew women-flowers, soft shoulders, fine waists like liana and wide skirts like corolla." Socialites flocked to Dior’s "New Look" designs, no doubt hungry for beauty, elegance and luxury that World War II had stripped from fashion. Dior’s goal was "to make elegant women more beautiful; to make beautiful women more elegant." Other Dior silhouettes are the H-line or flat look, the Oval, the Tulip, the Zigzag, the Vertical and the Profile.

Coco Chanel once said that Dior "upholstered" women instead of dressing them, according to "Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible." Christian Dior’s Death On October 23, 1957, just ten years after the "New Look" transformed the fashion world, Dior died at age 52 of a heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, at Hotel La Place, according to Dior’s New York Times obituary. Conflicting reports say he died after choking on a fish bone, after playing a card game or even after a sexual encounter, but the actual causes remain unknown. Although his career was short, Dior’s influence on fashion will continue to live on — especially if Dior creative director Raf Simons has a say. The "New Look" Today You don’t have to buy vintage Dior to flaunt the "New Look" today. It’s easy to mix and match vintage and contemporary pieces to achieve this classic silhouette. When shopping at a vintage store, find pieces dated late 1940s through 1950s and follow these tips: Blouse: Select a fitted blouse with a tapered waist and darts that accentuate the bust.

Or try a fitted peplum jacket or structured top with corseted construction. A fitted black cotton T-shirt, as shown in Dior’s spring/summer 2013 collection, modernizes the look. Skirt: To keep it modern, go for a full circle skirt that hits around the knees or at the ankles — a skirt that hits the middle of the calves can be a tricky, sometimes matronly, hemline. Make sure the waistline nips in your mid-section. Shoes: Opt for classic pointed-toe pumps. Accessories: Throw on a black scarf for Parisian oomph or elbow-length gloves for a more formal event. Sources "Dior, 52, Creator of ‘New Look,’ Dies," by The Associated Press, The New York Times, October 24, 1957. "Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible," by Tim Gunn, with Ada Calhoun. New York: Gallery Books, 2012. "The New Look: The Dior Revolution," by Nigel Cawthorne. London: Hamlyn, 1996. "Turning Points: New Look," Voguepedia, Vogue.com.

Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ of the 1940s and 1950s | Lady JoJo's Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ of the 1940s and 1950s Posted on July 13, 2011 by Lady JoJo's Boutique Recently I have been particularly taken with ‘The New Look’, which was the major shift in post-war fashion in the late forties. I find this style particularly interesting as you can really see the beginning of the 1950s shapes which are so popular today. The New Look is the brainchild of the ever fabulous Christian Dior and was part of a post-war attempt to revive France’s internationally acclaimed fashion industry. The collection was launched in 1947 and was actually Dior’s first. He had been invited by a friend, Marcel Boussac, to breathe new life into his struggling clothing company. Boussac also had investments in textile mills so Dior’s vision of billowing skirts and excess use of fabric appealed to him.

Boussac invested an unprecedented 60million Francs in launching Dior’s couture house which went on to be one of, if not the, biggest influence on post-war fashion. This 1947 spring/summer collection was originally made up of two lines, ‘Corolle’ and ‘Huit’ however the term ‘New Look’ is said to have came about after Harper’s Bazaar’s editor-in-chief, Carmel Snow, exclaimed “It’s such a new look!”. The signature style was made up of certain key elements; full-skirts, waspy waists and soft shoulders. After wartime rationing the yards and yards of fabric used in the designs was a refreshing change. As we all know, after the war women were encouraged to become homemakers once again, moving out of the workplace, and therefore the feminine, flowery and certainly impractical nature of this fashion was positively encouraged in Western countries. This Bar Suit is one of the iconic images from the collection as it encompasses the central themes of the style. The suit delicately displays the feminine body however the tailored jacket adds just the perfect touch of structure to the overall look.

During this period, there was still a slightly sombre tone as the Western world tried to re-build itself economically and the New Look accounts for this as it has a mature feel, attempting to avoid frivolity and girlishness which may have been criticised as poor taste. For example King George V, of British royalty, forbade his daughters from wearing the look as rationing was still prominent in some areas. Although Dior used a slightly masculine edge, as it was popular in the 1940s, he wanted to veer away from this and encourage women to embrace more feminine styles again – he was particularly fond of the 1930s version of femininity in fashion. He claimed that he wanted ‘to bring back beauty, feminine clothing, soft rounded shapes and full flowing skirts’. Above, we can see a couple of examples from this collection which incorporates softer touches such as the ruffling at the collar of the jacket. The white dress puts emphasis on the bust and hips, another trademark of this collection which enhances the hourglass form beyond the mere nipping in of waists.

After his initial 1947 collection, Dior became much more extreme in his designs as rationing and the war became a distant memory he used fabric in excess and his styles oozed opulence. He put particular emphasis on further highlighting the waspy waist by excess layering of materials so as the exaggerate the hourglass curves. He also used in-built padding around the hip and shoulder areas to create the silhouette. Dior particularly loved to be flamboyant when it came to his evening dresses where he could really experiment with mass quantities of fabric. He was particularly fond of strapless evening dresses and used built-in feather boning to hold the dresses up which was a feat of engineering in itself as they were rather on the large side. Tulle was often the fabric of choice for his evening wear skirts as it naturally creates light-weight volume. These two dresses are examples from his 1949 collections. The New Look really did change fashion at the time and its influences are still prominent today. Even within this year’s designer collections, the basic principles of the iconic Bar Suit can clearly be seen on some catwalks – even Christian Dior’s!

The striking silhouette of tiny waists with emphasis on the hourglass curves creating an almost caricature body shape has had a recent resurgence in popularity. Junya Watanabe RTW FW11 The New Look revolution / The story of Dior / The House of Dior / Dior official website The Bar jacket, an icon of the New Look 12 February 1947, an international success This is the story of a quip, which thanks to a magical moment, forged a legend. On 12 February 1947 at 10.30 a.m. Christian Dior, aged 42, presented his first collection at 30 Avenue Montaigne, which was strewn with flowers by Lachaume. The Editor-in-Chief of Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow, strongly believed in the couturier's talent, which she had already noted in 1937 with the Café Anglais model that he designed for Robert Piguet. At the end of the fashion show, having seen those unique silhouettes, those lengths, those volumes, those tiny waists and devilishly sexy busts, she exclaimed, "It's quite a revolution, dear Christian!

Your dresses have such a new look!" A correspondent from Reuters seized upon the slogan and quickly wrote it on a note that he threw from the balcony to a courier posted on Avenue Montaigne. The news reached the United States even before the rest of France, where the press had been on strike for a month. The American journalist, who cabled the brilliant slogan to her editor, did not know how right she was. The newness of which she spoke caused shock waves on both sides of the Atlantic. Just two years after the war, Dior, with this collection in his own image, definitively turned the page of restriction, gloom, rationing, gravity and uniforms. With the utmost seriousness, he wanted to give women back their taste for light-heartedness, the art of seduction: he had known since his childhood that they always kept it hidden somewhere within them, even in the most dramatic of circumstances. He learnt this in Granville during the Second World War, by observing women looking at the Parisian magazines that it was so difficult to get hold of: surprised and excited by the fashionable dresses, they raced to have them made as soon as they closed the magazine.

The Bar jacket, an icon of the New Look With his revolutionary New Look, Christian Dior wrote a new chapter in the history of fashion. Furthermore, in order to write it, he literally constructed it with his own hands. The would-be architect had to hammer away at a Stockman mannequin that was too tough and unyielding to bear the preparatory canvases of his visionary wardrobe, says his friend Suzanne Luling: "And so, with big, nervous blows of the hammer, he gave the mannequin the same form of the ideal woman for the fashion that he was to launch." His aim was clear; his hand did not tremble. "I wanted my dresses to be 'constructed', moulded on the curves of the female body whose contours they would stylise. I accentuated the waist, the volume of the hips, I emphasised the bust. In order to give my designs more hold, I had nearly all the fabrics lined with percale or taffeta, renewing a tradition that had long been abandoned." Thus, on 12 February 1947 at 10.30 a.m., the announcer introduced "numéro un, number one".

The first outfit was worn by Marie-Thérèse and opened the show during which the astounded audience saw 90 different creations file past, belonging to two principal lines: En Huit and Corolle. Bettina Ballard, Fashion Editor at Vogue, had returned to New York a few months earlier after 15 years spent covering French fashion from Paris, believing European fashion was heading for a dead end. But she was a good sport and even she had to bow to the innovative genius of Dior: "We have witnessed a revolution in fashion at the same time as a revolution in the way of showing fashion." The Bar jacket immortalised in the famous photo by Willy Maywald, was a signature piece from this collection with its cream shantung morning coat with rounded tails that closely followed the curves of the bust and its large black pleated skirt that flared out, giving the gait an elegant swing that had never been seen before. It was all cleverly completed by a little black pillar-box hat perched cheekily on the head, gloves and fine slender shoes in complete contrast to the square-toed shoes with wedged heels worn by those who had come to watch the fashion show.

One by one, like plucking petals from a daisy, it was possible to pick out the major pieces of this manifesto-collection that demonstrated the style and state of mind of a rigorous and joyful man. There was the Passe-Partout suit in navy-blue wool crepe with its crew-neck jacket, pockets on the chest and the tails and pencil skirt that outlined the irreproachable En Huit line. The Corolle afternoon dress in black wool fastened with five large buttons on the bust and skirt with aptly-named miraculous pleats. The Jungle sheath dress with a panther motif, the Soirée dress with two layers of superimposed pleats in navy blue taffeta...

In short, from Rita Hayworth to the average woman on the street that couture did not normally touch, but who learnt during the post-war period to work miracles with her sewing machine, everyone now wanted to adopt this new look that Christian Dior himself was later to describe as "the return to an ideal of civilised happiness." Not long after the fashion show, Elle magazine printed a photo of Marlene Dietrich's calves, the "most beautiful legs in the world", advising its readers to take a good look because they were never likely to be seen again – the star had just ordered 10 New Look dresses whose hems would now cover her up! Dior became "the most famous Frenchman in the world", according to the headline of the L'Aurore newspaper. A photo showed two women tearing apart the New Look outfit of a third woman in the middle of the street, shocked by the lengths of fabric and ‘indecent’ sensuality. It was to misunderstand the motivation of Dior who, in designing "flower women with soft shoulders, blossoming bosoms, waists as slender as creepers and skirts as wide as corollas" only wanted to make them happy. Which he succeeded in doing.

Over six decades after its creation, the New Look revolution and its spirit continue to inspire Dior. The New Look is a perpetual evolution. Dior, 52, Creator Of 'New Look,' Dies Dior, 52, Creator Of 'New Look,' Dies By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MONTECATINI, Italy, Thursday, Oct. 24--Christian Dior, for many years the leader in the world of fashion design, died here early today of a heart attack. His age was 52. M. Dior, who tended to conservative suits and ties for his own attire, died at the Hotel La Place. He had been vacationing in northern Italy for the last week. M. Dior's greatest feat was the "New Look" in 1947, when he seized and held for France the style leadership of the world after it had threatened to pass to the United States in the post-war years. For his achievement the French Government awarded the Legion of Honor to him. Because his business sense matched his creative genius, M. Dior made fashions pay off. In 1953 his business totaled $17,000,000.

He always denied any intention of making fashion sensations. "Changes just come about and many things contribute when everybody is ready for them," he once said. In a book, he wrote that styles go in cycles, with a complete revolution about every seven years. The post-war year 1947, he said, was the psychological time to bring back femininity. One of his precepts was "to make elegant women more beautiful; to make beautiful women more elegant." 'Tyrant of Hemlines' Crowned by tacit consent as monarch of the haute couture (but sometimes also as the "tyrant of the hemlines") M. Dior once credited the fame of his creations to this credo: Please the ladies by enabling them to please their men. "Cri-cri," as he was called by his intimates, was by his scope as well as by his styles Designer Number One in the world of high fashion. He branched out faster and farther than any other couturier ever had.

The Dior interests at his death included not only the original Maison Dior on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris--a business structure of mirrored and chandeliered elegance--but also Dior enterprises in twenty-four countries, reporting grossing $15,000,000 a year. His creation of the long hemline and full skirt in 1947 set off an international controversy, but clearly re-established Paris on its fashion throne. But behind the vast Dior enterprises was always the plump, pink-cheeked master, who twice each year went into seclusion to create the newest designs. And much of that time each year he spent in the bathtub, usually his Empire tub of green marble lined with silvery metal and fitted with swan's-head faucets. There he soaked, and pondered a new line, and sketched his ideas on scraps of paper. M.

Dior's "New Look" came out about a year after he had established his own salon, but he created almost as much of a sensation three years ago with his "H-line," often called the "flat look." Other Dior innovations included the Zigzag (generous decollete), the Vertical (high value on the bosom, leaving to the legs their length and elegance), the Oval (underlining the roundness of the hips), the Profile ("precision" in molding the contours) and the Tulip (high bosom). 'Luxury Must Be Defended' M. Dior saw more than mere cloth-cutting in his world of fashion. "In a machine age," he once declared, "dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable. In an epoch as somber as ours, luxury must be defended inch by inch." He had no intention, as a young man, to become a dressmaker. The son of a wealthy chemical fertilizer manufacturer, young Dior--born at Granville, France, on Jan. 21, 1905--was expected to go into diplomacy.

He prepared for college at Janson de Sailly, the fashionable Paris preparatory school, and then was sent to the School of Political Science of the University of Paris. But at the age of 23, influenced by friendships he had formed with a number of artists, he turned his back on diplomacy to become an art dealer. His art gallery was said to have been among the first to exhibit surrealist paintings, displaying pictures by such friends of his as Salvador Dali, Christian Berard and Jean Cocteau. In 1934 Mr. Dior became ill and was forced to give up the little art gallery. He spent a year convalescing, then returned to Paris during the world-wide crisis of the Nineteen Thirties. The Dior family had lost much of their fortune and young Dior had to do something more than sell pictures to exist. The Figaro Illustrated engaged him as an illustrator for a weekly page devoted to haute couture. His designs for hats quickly captured feminine fancies in Paris, and Agnes, the famous Place Vendome milliner, ordered entire collections from him.

He went briefly into dress designing for Piguet, but then the war broke out and he was mustered into the French Army as a private first class in the Engineers. In 1941 he became a designer again, this time for Lucien Lelong. In 1946, when the French Ministry of Production lifted cloth rationing, M. Dior, with the backing of Marcel Boussac, French cotton millionaire, set up his own salon. It was almost big business from the start, operated on terms of big business unknown to other firms in the fashion world. The Dior organization includes general statistical surveys, the control of revenue and costs through the use of business machines and a program against copying that permitted the immediate identification of dresses sold in France and overseas. M. Dior, who remained a bachelor, once was described as "diffident, unassuming, balding." He was a hard worker, often insisted that his lunch--usually a salad, boiled ham and fruit--be taken to him in his studio, where the lights often stayed ablaze long into the night. A Dior presentation was one of the high points of the fashion world, but M.

Dior once described the opening of his shows this way: "The dressing room is a picture of hell, whereas to the public it has to appear as a bouquet." Diorable Style: February 12, 1947 - Dior's New Look is Born February 12, 1947 - Dior's New Look is Born "In 1947, my first collection was successful beyond my wildest dreams." - Christian Dior On February 12, 1947, precisely sixty-four years ago today, a humble man by the name of Christian Dior catapulted to international stardom with the launch of his debut haute couture collection. Immediately upon its reveal at Dior's studio, originally titled "Corolle", fashion critic and Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow exclaimed, "It's quite a revelation, dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look!". Unbeknownst to her that moment, from merely uttering a sentence of gracious praise, Ms. Snow was to coin perhaps the most iconic debut collection of all time.

The Tailleur Bar ensemble & its respective sketch by Dior In a firm response to the imposed fabric restrictions during World War II, Dior would zealously craft his revolutionary designs utilizing countless yards of extravagant materials. Inspired by his nostalgic emotions towards the Belle Époque fashions of the late 1800's to the first World War, Christian Dior's designs restored ultra femininity to both the fashion industry and women worldwide. Featuring a cinched waist, accentuated bust, and full-length pleated skirt, Dior's opulent New Look introduced his legendary "Tailleur Bar" ensemble (or simply the "Bar Suit"). With a dominance of boxy shapes popularized by houses such as Chanel and Lanvin in the 20's and 30's, Christian Dior's New Look would soon take the world by storm and begin the history of contemporary fashion. On this day in 1947, Monsieur Christian Dior introduced an ultra-feminine silhouette which would ignite a global fashion revolution, restore Paris as the pinnacle of haute couture, and launch the legendary empire of Dior.

Joyeux Anniversaire, New Look :) From the Archives: Dior's New Look in Vogue - Vogue Vogue Vogue may earn compensation on these sales through affiliate programs. See more photos of: Expand Vogue April 1, 1947 “Christian Dior, new house with new vigor, new ideas, here makes a variation of his market-woman skirt—stiffened, standout, pleated at a low mark.

The hat is by Maud Roser, white piqué, banded with navy-blue chiffon.” Illustration by Dagmar Freuchen Gale See more photos of: Photo: (from top) Emile Savitry; Clifford Coffin See more photos of: Dior’s black wool suit Photographed by Serge Balkin From left: Schiaparelli’s yellow hat; Dior suit Photo: (from left) Clifford Coffin; Serge Balkin See more photos of: From left: Dior’s dinner taffeta; Eyelet blouse and horsehair hat by Schiaparelli Photographed by Serge Balkin Clockwise from left: “Quatre Saisons” by Dior; “Maxime” by Dior; Goya pumps Photographed by Serge Balkin Expand Vogue April 1, 1947 Left page (clockwise from top): Black-lined beige gabardine; Green linen dress with rounding hips, black waistband; Grey suit; Checked suit with curved jacket Right page (clockwise from top left): Pongee dress with a draped hat; Silk surah day dress; Gibson girl beige pongee blouse, grey skirt; Dior’s “Park Monceau” grey Inverness Photographed by Serge

 Balkin See more photos of: On the occasion of Raf Simons’ s ready-to-wear debut today at the helm of Christian Dior , here’s a peek back at the winter of 1947—photographed for the April issue of Vogue—when the news from post-Liberation Paris, besides the bone-chilling cold, was full skirts and wasp-waisted, silk-shantung Bar jackets, an extravagantly feminine “New Look” for Parisiennes, accustomed to the frugal and utilitarian, that was dreamed up by a new designer, Christian Dior, at a brand-new house bearing his name.

Learn more about Christian Dior in Voguepedia. Featuring covers, advertisements, articles, photographs, and illustrations in their original context, the Vogue Archive offers a glimpse of Vogue’s unparalleled record of fashion, social, and cultural ideas. Vogue.com registered users have access to a selection of editor-chosen issues from the Vogue Archive. Vogue magazine subscribers have access to a selection of 36 issues, including the very first issue of the magazine from 1892. To access the Vogue Archive, go to voguearchive.com and use the Archive Login in the upper-right-hand corner. Christian Dior - Design Museum Christian Dior Posted January 21, 2016 -- Updated October 18 Despite a short career, Christian Dior dominated the world of fashion during the late 1940s and 1950s, with the hourglass silhouette of his voluptuous New Look.

Share Christian Dior One of the most influential fashion designers of the late 1940s and 1950s, Christian Dior (1905 to 1957) despite a short career dominated the world of fashion after World War II with the hourglass silhouette of his voluptuous New Look. He also defined a new business model in the post-war fashion industry by establishing Dior as a global brand across a wide range of products. Early Years Christian Dior was born on 21 January 1905 in Granville, a lively seaside town on the Normandy coast, in France. He was the second of the five children of Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior, the latest heir in an established family business of fertiliser manufacturers, and his wife Isabelle. The family lived in a pretty grey and pink house perched high on a cliff with spectacular views over the sea. They moved to Paris in 1910 returning to Granville for holidays each summer.

Dior longed to become an architect but, at his father’s insistence, he enrolled at the prestigious École des Sciences Politiques (nicknamed ‘Sciences Po’), in Paris to take a degree in politics which, his parents hoped, would prepare him for a diplomatic career. All Dior wanted, however, was to work in the arts. In 1928, his father gave him enough money to open an art gallery on condition that the family name would not appear above the door. Galerie Jacques Bonjean, which Dior opened with Bonjean, soon became an avant-garde haunt with paintings by Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob hanging on walls decorated by Christian Bérard. Disaster struck in 1931 when the death of Dior’s older brother was followed by that of his mother and the collapse of the family firm. The gallery closed. For the next few years Dior scraped a living by selling fashion sketches to haute couture houses. Finally he found a job as an assistant to the couturier, Robert Piquet.

World War II Dior continued to work for Piquet until he was called up to the Army following the start of World War II. He served for a year, before being demobilised after France’s surrender. Once out of the military he joined his father and a sister on a farm in Provence. To make a living in this period, Dior first worked in the farm and then, inspired and with the help of various friends, he sold sketches to couture houses, milliners and magazines until he was offered a job in Paris at Lucien Lelong. Like other French couturiers during the War, Lelong took on as clients the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators as a way to survive the conflict. Despite all efforts, 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. Creating the House of Dior Through George Vigouroux, a childhood friend from Granville, Dior was offered to become the artistic director at the house of Philippe et Gaston.

This was a struggling clothing company owned by Marcel Boussac, then known as the‘King of Cotton’, a businessman with an empire of racing stables, newspapers, and textile mills. Surprisingly, instead of accepting Boussac’s offer, Dior proposed a different plan. He suggested that Bousacc should help him open his own fashion house: an establishment ‘where everything would be new, from the state of mind and the staff to the furniture and premises’. Boussac agreed to launch the new couture house in style with a then-unprecedented budget of 50 million. Jacques Rouët, a young civil servant, was appointed as its administrator. The house of Dior and its 85 employees moved into a modest mansion at 30 Avenue Montaigne which was decorated in Dior’s favourite colours of white and grey. The First Show and the New Look The first Christian Dior couture show was scheduled for 12 February 1947. At that time clothes were still scarce and the Paris couture trade, which had dominated international fashion since the late 18th century, was in a precarious state.

What was needed was excitement and Christian Dior delivered it in a collection of luxurious and feminine clothes with soft shoulders, waspy waists, rounded hips, and full flowing skirts, intended for what he called the ‘flower women’. Dior’s propositions famously impressed the audience. ‘It’s quite a revelation dear Christian’, pronounced Carmel Snow, the editor of American magazine Harper’s Bazaar. ‘Your dresses have such a new look’. That phrase famously came to identify Dior’s first collection and the ‘New Look’ designs resonated with the clients’ sensibilities during the grim post-war era. Dior foresaw that women might appreciate something new after years of conflict, brutality, hardship, and clothing restrictions. Despite initial resistance to skirts’ lengths and the incredible amount of fabric that was required to make a New Look garment (between 15 and 25 meters), these designs became a sensation. Among this first collection titled ‘Corolle’, was the iconic ‘Bar suit’ which became one of the most popular designs of the line. Dior’s couture house was inundated with orders. Rita Hayworth picked out an evening gown for the première of her new movie, Gilda.

The ballerina, Margot Fonteyn, bought a suit. Starting with his first collection Dior helped to put Paris back on the fashion map. The US couture clients came back in force for the autumn 1947 collections. Dior was also invited to stage a private presentation of that season’s show for the British Royal Family in London, although King George VI forbade the young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, from wearing the New Look lest it set a bad example at a time when rationing was still in force for the general public. Constructing and Expanding the Brand Behind the scenes Jacques Rouët helped manage and built up the Dior business. The traditional Paris couture houses were small operations making bespoke clothes for private clients. Some couturiers had diversified into other products: notably Chanel and Jean Patou into perfume, and Elsa Schiaparelli into hosiery. Both Boussac and Rouët realised that a lucrative move forward would be for the House of Dior to diversify further afield into more products and international markets.

Eager to capitalise on the publicity generated by the New Look, they opened a luxury ready-to-wear boutique on New York’s Fifth Avenue, and another branch dedicated to selling furs on Avenue Montaigne. When a US hosiery company offered the House of Dior the then-enormous fee of $10,000 for the rights to manufacture their stockings, the foot of which was designed by Dior himself, the couturier proposed waiving the fee in favour of a percentage of the product’s sales, thereby introducing the royalty payment system to fashion. Remarkably Dior had soon reached his dream of being able to fully dress a woman, even providing undergarments. In this respect Dior even launched a perfume, named ‘Miss Dior’, allegedly a tribute to his sister Catherine who had survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The only item Christian Dior did not design himself were shoes, for which he eventually turned to Roger Vivier. The newly wealthy Dior bought and converted the Moulin du Couder at Milly-la-Forêt, near Fontainebleau outside Paris where he could indulge his love of art, antiques and gardening.

Shortly thereafter he also bought a small house on Boulevard Jules Sandeau in Passy. Still shy, he left socialising to Suzanne Luling, his vivacious and talented sales director, and he grew even more superstitious with age. Every collection included a coat called the ‘Granville’, named after his birthplace, and at least one model wore a bunch of his favourite flower, lily of the valley. Moreover Dior never began a couture show without having consulted his tarot card reader. Throughout the 1950s Christian Dior was one of the more successful haute couture houses in Paris. Although there were other fashion designers that rivalled Dior, among which were Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga, neither of these designers could count on the strategic support system and structure available to Dior As well as Jacques Rouët and Suzanne Luling mentioned above, Dior had the ‘three muses’ who worked with him on the collections: Raymonde Zehnacker who managed the studio; Marguerite Carré, head of the workrooms; and Germaine Bricard, the glamorous hat designer. The house was run along rigidly hierarchical lines.

Each of the vendeuses (sales assistants), had their own clients with whom they were expected to nurture friendly relationships. The ateliers, or workrooms, were staffed by seamstresses, many of whom had worked there since leaving school. During the twice-yearly haute couture shows in late January and early August, some 2,500 people filed in and out of the Dior salons to see the new collections. Each show included up to two hundred outfits and lasted as long as two and a half hours. The models, or ‘mannequins’ as they were then called, came from the same privileged backgrounds as the clients and were hired in different shapes and sizes to show how the clothes would look on different women. 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. Marshall Fields, the Chicago store, had nine couture workshops and a marble-lined salon, ‘The 28th Shop’.

Discount clothing chains, like Ohrbach, 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. As a prestigious Paris couture house, over the years Dior also attracted talents. One was Pierre Cardin, an Italian-born tailor who was head of department at Dior in the late 1940s before leaving to begin his own business. Another was Yves Saint Laurent, a gifted young Algeria-born designer who joined in 1955 as the star graduate of the Chambre Syndicale Fashion School to become Dior’s first ever assistant. As timid as Dior himself, the young Saint Laurent flourished at the couture house and contributed a remarkable thirty-five outfits for the autumn 1957 collection. When all the fittings for the collection were finished, Dior took off for a rest cure at his favourite spa town of Montecatini, in Italy, some say hoping to lose weight in order to impress a young lover. Adieu Dior Ten days later, on 24 October, Dior, only 52 years old, died while still on his vacation in Italy.

(The cause of death has attracted many speculations. Some say the couturier had died after suffering three heart attacks, but others sustain he had choked on a fish bone at dinner, while others yet point to a ‘strenuous sexual encounter’ as cause of death.) . News of Dior’s death sparked many reactions. For example the French newspaper Le Monde hailed him as a man who was ‘identified with good taste, the art of living and refined culture that epitomises Paris to the outside world’. Marcel Boussac sent his private plane to Montecatini to bring Dior’s body back to Paris. Some 2,500 people attended his funeral including all his staff and famous clients led by the Duchess of Windsor. A fortnight later Jacques Rouët called a press conference to announce the new structure of the house of Christian Dior. ‘The studio will be run by Madame Zehnmacker, the couture workshops by Madame Marguerite Carré’, he announced. ‘Mitza Bricard will continue to exercise her good taste over the collections.

All the sketches will be the responsibility of Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent.’ The House of Dior After Dior The first Dior collection after Christian Dior’s death was a sensation. Designed in just nine weeks by the 21 year-old Yves Saint Laurent—as he was called after dropping his middle name ‘Mathieu’—the clothes were as meticulously made and perfectly proportioned as Dior’s in the same exquisite fabrics, but their young designer made them softer, lighter and easier to wear. Saint Laurent was hailed as a national hero. Emboldened by his success, his designs became more daring culminating in the 1960 Beat Look inspired by the existentialists in the Saint-Germain des Près cafés and jazz clubs. Marcel Boussac was furious and, in spring 1960, when Saint Laurent was called up to join the French army, the Dior management raised no objection. Saint Laurent was conscripted in the army and, after demobilisation, he opened his own couture house.

He was replaced at Dior, in 1961, by Marc Bohan, who instilled his conservative style on the collections until 1989 when Gianfranco Ferré became the new artistic director. Ferré remained at Dior until 1996, and then the iconoclastic John Galliano, was appointed chief designer of Christian Dior by the company’s new owner, the LVMH luxury goods group. Recent Years Galliano worked at Dior for 15 years (between 1996 and 2011), before being fired from the company due to a public anti-Semitic incident. Dior’s designer Bill Gaytten oversaw the collections at the fashion house as a new creative director was being appointed. In April 2012 Raf Simons, a Belgian furniture designer who in 1995 turned fashion designer by launching his menswear collection, was announced as Dior’s new Creative Director. Despite having produced successful collections for Dior, in October 2015 Simons stepped away from his engagement with the Parisian fashion house.

In July 2016, eight months after Simons' departure, Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was announced new Creative Director becoming the first woman to design womenswear for Dior. Christian Dior: Rare Photos From the Birth of the 'New Look,' 1948 SHARE When these photos were taken in 1948, Christian Dior was in the process of launching a couture revolution and reinventing high fashion In March 1948, LIFE introduced its readers to a pioneering French fashion designer and what the magazine called his “revolutionary” vision. The monsieur in question was none other than (in writer Jeanne Perkins marvelous characterization) “a timid, middle-aged, insignificant-looking little Frenchman named Christian Dior ,” and the fashion earthquake he unleashed was something called, simply and unforgettably, the New Look.

Here, LIFE.com not only offers a glimpse back at a seminal moment in fashion history, but presents pictures — some that appeared in the magazine, many that were never published — by some of LIFE’s finest photographers, taken at a Dior show in Paris in 1948, when the New Look was all the rage and a timid, middle-aged, insignificant-looking little Frenchman astonished and thrilled the couture world. Below is an abridged version of the article that ran in the March 1, 1948, issue of LIFE, beneath the one-word headline: DIOR. Like all great revolutionists, Christian Dior is a creature of destiny. He did not create the New Look single-handed. But he appeared at the psychological moment as its man on plush horseback. As far back as the late 1930s Martha Graham’s modern ballet troupe was wearing the knee-covering, bosom-exposing garments currently featured as the New Looks. In 1941 Harper’s Bazaar solemnly warned its readers: ‘Watch your skirt length. If this longer skirt length looks right to you, you’re a woman of the future.’ Dior senses this situation (‘I know very well the women’).

He also senses that the time was exactly ripe to convert these minority manifestations into a powerful mass movement. . . . Although scarcely anyone had ever heard of him before last year, Christian Dior had been a minor league figure in Paris dress business, on and off, since 1936. About a year and a half ago, with backing from a French gambler and millionaire named Marcel Boussac, he left a job as one of Lucien Lelong’s numerous assistants to open his own dress shop — a fine old mansion on the Avenue Montaigne, a few steps away from the Champs Elysées. He plunged lavishly, staking everything on a single throw. For four months 85 decorators and painters labored to produce an atmosphere of discreet elegance unequaled in any existing Paris salon de couture. When the setting was ready, Dior retired to his little country house near Fontainbleau and meditated for a week. He returned from his lonely vigil, his pockets stuffed with 300 designs scrawled on odd bits of paper. “I’m a mild man,” Dior says, “but I have violent tastes.” Violent tastes were precisely what the situation demanded.

Dior went all-out for his new line. His narrow waists became as much as 2 inches narrower by means of specially installed corsets. His low necks were so low that they barely stopped at the waist. Other designers might sidle up to old-fashioned femininity and romance; Dior tackled it headlong. “Three weeks ago,” LIFE concluded, “the new spring showing of Dior models opened in Paris. ‘Chalk up another fast one for Christian Dior,’ exhorted WNBC’s Peter Roberts. ‘Yesterday he let the world in on his ideas for 1948. And the folks who should know were betting dollars to doughuts he was going to lengthen skirts a little more. But friend Dior shortened skirts! Not much — but shortened. Just one inch. . . .'”

Question: Which fashion designer brought out the 'New Look' in 1947?
Answer: CHRISTIAN DIOR