Fashions: Year In Review 1996 | Britannica.com Fashions: Year In Review 1996 Written By: Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent The spring-summer 1996 international women’s ready-to-wear collections were marked by the absence of a singular definitive look. Designers in London, Paris, Milan, and New York presented a number of options, including bright colours, particularly orange and lime green, and bold-patterned clothes. Designer Tom Ford produced what was christened "hippie chic" for the Italian fashion house Gucci. The style featured lace and velvet caftans and was reportedly inspired by the 1960s socialite Talitha Getty. Most talked-about were two wardrobe alternatives: a casual, wearable style that the press called "no-fuss chic" and a more frivolous look that came to be known as "good taste/bad taste." No-fuss chic took a simple approach to dressing.

It was based on a wardrobe of neat, interchangeable separates: a pair of tailored trousers shown with or without a matching jacket, a crisp white shirt, or a sleek sweater cut close to the body, and stylish yet sensible shoes--either flats or footwear with "block" heels. Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel showed the look best, sending models onto the runway in a casual mix-and-match ensemble: loosely cut pastel tweed Chanel jackets, cotton piqué shirts, and chinos. Meanwhile, good taste/bad taste featured the mixing of fashion elements. Sharply tailored items like skirts and trousers were cut from cheap functional fabrics such as polyester, and textiles were printed with odd, clashing patterns in off colours--bile green, purple, brown, and cream. Such clothes were shown mostly by such young designers as Jean Colonna, Anna Sui, and Gianni Versace’s sister Donatella. Miuccia Prada, the foremost purveyor of the style, produced a collection of "geek" prints that fell flat and confused usually complimentary critics. Her new designs were in sharp contrast to those of previous seasons: subtle, tailored clothes often cut from couture fabrics.

At the international men’s collection, the spring-summer styles were decidedly toned down following a year of hit-and-miss flamboyance. Men adopted styles to suit their own lives and occupations, which made the designer-dictated wardrobe obsolete. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest For the night of the Academy Award presentations, U.S. actress Sharon Stone, a symbol of Hollywood glamour followed the men’s lead. She rejected ensembles offered to her by Valentino and Vera Wang, two prominent fashion designers. Instead, Stone opted for a mix of her own clothes: a Gap black turtleneck, a floor-length Armani evening coat, and a pair of diamond earrings. Meanwhile, 21-year old model-actress Chloe Sevigny, the star of Larry Clark’s Kids and the model for Prada’s diffusion line Miu Miu, explained the hip ideal for young people to London’s Evening Standard newspaper. "Just day to day," she said, "I’m trying to be antifashionable." Fashion, it seemed, was out of fashion. After years of offering a form of mass entertainment, the industry suffered from a wave of negative publicity.

Clothes shopping was no longer a diversion in the U.S., where corporate downsizing coupled with a loss of interest in fashion among baby boomers depressed the apparel industry. Other sectors of the industry were plagued by a series of setbacks and scandals. Terrorist bombings in Paris and the necessary security checks at the spring-summer pret-a-porter collections caused a general feeling of unease among those in attendance. Then, in early winter, a series of general strikes hit France, threatening to delay production involved in the spring-summer couture collections that were presented in January. In New York City in January, Barneys, the high-fashion chain of stores run by the Pressman family, sought protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Barneys had been a fashion leader in the U.S. during the 1980s, with an innovative approach to advertising, merchandising, and the creation of stylish shop interiors. Problems also beset the New York-based Council of Fashion Designers of America, which had organized the staging of fashion collections held biannually at tent shows in Manhattan’s Bryant Park.

A few weeks before the autumn-winter collections were set to debut, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan backed out without notice or much explanation, announcing that they would show their work in more "intimate" venues. Such high-profile designers as Joan Vass, Badgely Mischka, Todd Oldham, and Ghost followed them. Some claimed that the cost of producing a tent-sized show was too high (an estimated $100,000 for an hour-long presentation) and that the presence of lower-priced apparel lines diminished the feeling of exclusivity. The general consensus was that the circuslike atmosphere created by staging fashion shows in large venues such as tents and even in the Carrousel du Louvre, a Paris structure that was expressly built for that purpose but was rejected by most French designers for their autumn-winter shows and couture collections, no longer suited the more minimal, less overtly glamorous spirit of fashion. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In the spring the fashion media were involved in two scandals.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell was reportedly "highly insulted" and unhappy with the representation given black models after the editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, relocated Campbell’s cover photo to the inside fold and featured white model Nikki Taylor on the cover instead. In its assessment of the situation, The Times (London) reported that sales figures had been known to drop when a black model was featured on the cover of a women’s fashion magazine. The ABCs of Poetry: Fact or Fiction? In London controversy erupted after pictures of the very thin, partially exposed form of model Trish Goff appeared in the June issue of British Vogue. In response the Omega Watch Corp., a major source of Vogue’s advertising revenues, announced that it would stop placing ads in the magazine, claiming that officials were angered by the "anorexic proportions" of the "skeletal models" featured in the magazine. Though Omega retreated from its stance one week after the scandal went public, the incident highlighted the emaciated images that were often presented to the public. The womanly proportions of the ’80s supermodel had by 1996 disappeared from fashion’s spotlight. In September German model Claudia Schiffer announced her retirement.

Now popular on the autumn-winter runways were models the New York Times summed up as "skinny, white, young, and devoid of personality." They suited "heroin chic," the glamorous junkie look that proved popular with stylists and makeup artists who put together the autumn-winter shows for Vivienne Westwood, Helmut Lang, and Ann Demeulemeester, among others. Reportedly inspired by the drug culture, on view in the film Trainspotting and the Broadway musical Rent, this style raised questions about drug habits among models and further highlighted the turbulence within the industry. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano Innovation was hard to find at the autumn-winter ready-to-wear and couture collections. Karl Lagerfeld had revived black lycra leggings, a fashion element that most critics had hoped women left behind with the ’80s. Meanwhile, the dominant trend among most designers of ready-to-wear was a ’70s style: a long lean silhouette, featuring maxicoats, long skirts, knee-high boots, and a slimmer variation of bell bottoms, known now as boot-cut trousers. Rich colours such as plum, chocolate, and navy replaced basic black.

Also shown were military looks, ranging from drab olive green trousers and sophisticated tailored jackets featuring epaulets and gold accessories to androgynous tailored trouser suits, styles that belonged to previous seasons. The ’70s also became a dominant theme in autumn-winter men’s collections, as symbolized by such sartorial statements as fur- and faux fur-trimmed coats, jackets with sharply emphasized shoulders or those with wide lapels, and boot-cut trousers. More important was a distinct move away from loose, unconstructed clothes. Tailoring made a return, and tapering, which made garments and suiting slimmer fitting, was introduced. Particularly influential on the men’s front was the U.S. designer Ralph Lauren, whose two lines--Purple Label and Blue Label--featured tailored one-button and double-breasted suits worn with solid-coloured ties and white shirts. Midyear, fashion mourned the loss of two trendsetters. The U.S.-born, Paris-based model Wallis Franken, the muse and wife of French fashion designer Claude Montana, was found dead outside her Paris apartment, apparently a suicide. In August British designer Ossie Clark (see OBITUARIES ) was found murdered in his apartment in London.

His lover, Diego Cogolato, was later arrested and charged with murder. Though living close to the poverty line at the time of his death, Clark had been one of the most influential British designers of the late ’60s. He had dressed Mick and Bianca Jagger and designed the clothes for the film Bonnie and Clyde, among other projects. Despite the bleak outlook, there was reason to celebrate. The year 1996 marked both the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Louis Reard’s bikini and the 30th anniversary of Yves Saint Laurent’s "le smoking," a classic tailored tuxedo pantsuit for women. British fashion scored a triple coup. The London-educated designer John Galliano (see BIOGRAPHIES) assumed the role of designer in chief at the French fashion house Givenchy in January before replacing Gianfranco Ferre as designer in chief of couture and ready-to-wear at Christian Dior in October. (Both fashion houses were owned by the French company Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.) Meanwhile, the London-based avant-garde designer Alexander McQueen replaced Galliano at Givenchy and was later named British Fashion Designer of the Year.

His "bumsters," trousers that revealed the top half of the buttocks, helped revive the long, lean silhouette that proved successful for many designers. British model Stella Tennant became "the official face of Chanel." Bronwyn Cosgrave Christian Dior - Designer | Flickr Back to albums list Christian Dior - Designer Fashion designer Christian Dior (1905-1957) was born in Normandy, France. At his parents' insistence, he studied political science. After military service and several years of indecision, he returned to Paris in 1935 and began his design career by selling sketches. His hat designs were initially more successful than his dress designs. But he concentrated on his dress designs and was hired by Robert Piguet in 1938. During the war, he served in the South of France, then returned again to Paris in 1941 and worked for Lucien Lelong, a much larger design house. In 1946, he was able to open his own house, backed by textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac. In 1947, Christian Dior presented a fashion look with a fitted jacket with a nipped in waist and full calf length skirt.

It was a dramatic change from wartime austerity styles and named the ‘New Look’. Dior’s lavish use of material was a bold and shocking stroke. His style used yards and yards of fabric. The New Look collection violated all the rules of wartime fashion: his outfits had rounded shoulders; full, billowing skirts; and a narrow waist. The dresses were lined with expensive and luxurious fabrics such as cambric or taffeta and were beautifully detailed. Outfits were accessorized with a hat, often worn to one side, long gloves, and simple jewelry. As Valerie Steele wrote in Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now: ‘The longing for elegance and luxury had been suppressed for the years of the war, and the New Look promised to gratify it’. As Dior described it when the clothing line was introduced, the New Look was symbolic of youth and the future. Dior’s New Look clothes at that time were widely adorned by upper class people, but many critics scolded the designer for ignoring the continued rationing and the economic distress of the war years. They complained that manufacturers didn’t have enough cloth to make Dior’s full skirts and that women didn’t have enough money to buy them.

One British politician claimed that the longer skirt was the “ridiculous whim of idle people,” while protestors in Paris called out, “40,000 francs for a dress and our children have no milk,” according to Nigel Cawthorne, author of The New Look: The Dior Revolution. But women and other designers disagreed. The first women to see the designs at Paris fashion shows raved that femininity had returned to women’s clothes. Designers imitated Dior’s look for their collections and quickly produced ready-to-wear New Look-inspired clothing lines. The New Look killed off the utility clothing of the war years and ushered in a new era in fashion. By 1948 the New Look was the dominant fashion in Paris, France; London, England; and New York, and it continued to be popular for several years. Together with his partner Jaques Rouet, Dior was the pioneer for license agreements in the fashion business. Already in 1948, he decided to arrange licensed production of furs, socks, ties, perfumes, and clothing in regionally seperate production centers. Thus spreading the brand name quickly around the globe.

In 1953, he hired Yves Saint Laurent as an assistant. After Dior's sudden death in October 1957 in Italy, Saint Laurent became head designer and introduced the trapeze dress in his first collection for the house. When Saint Laurent was called for military duty in 1960, Marc Bohan took over, remaining until Gianfranco Ferre became designer in 1989. Ferre was replaced at the end of 1996. After much talk about possible successors of Ferre in October 1996, John Galliano took his place as chief designer for Dior. Galliano, known as the ‘enfant terrible’ of the fashion business was responsible for Givenchy for two seasons before switching to Dior. It is believed that Dior's parent-company LVMH wants rejuvenate Dior's appearance, hoping it will create an equally astonishing run on Dior products like Tom Ford created for Gucci. Indeed, Galliano's approach to fashion resembles Dior's intention when he started in 1947. In contrast to Chanel for example, Dior established a romantic and very feminine look, which emphasised luxury rather than comfort.

Galliano, as Dior's successor, created an equally feminine style, blending today's freedom of expression with the reminiscence of past opulence. Show more Christian Dior Clothing Wholesale - Buy Authentic Dior Clothing Christian Dior Clothing Christian Dior was one of the most memorable designers of the 20th century. Dior established one of the largest, most respected fashion houses the world had ever seen. The House of Dior makes some of the world's most coveted haute couture, as well as luxury ready-to-wear fashion, menswear and accessories. Dior operates about 160 boutiques worldwide. Christian Dior clothing is creative, innovative and provocative, exuding sophistication and elegance with every design. Authentic Christian Dior Clothing Wholesale We are selling genuine, authentic Christian Dior clothing - Designer Dior Men and Designer Dior Women - at Wholesale prices. Please go to the Christian Dior Wholesale section to see which Christian Dior clothing items we currently have on sale. Christian Dior Clothing - The New Look In 1947, Christian Dior created the dramatic "New Look", which dominated fashion throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

The "New Look" revolutionized women's dress and re-established Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II. The signature shape – characterized by a below-mid-calf length, full-skirt, large bust, and small waist – was hugely popular. The hem of the skirt was very flattering on the calves and ankles, creating a beautiful silhouette. Christian Dior, a true master at creating shapes and silhouettes, is quoted saying "I have designed flower women". The "New Look", which re-emphasized large busts, was both womanly and sophisticated. Dior continued to be a major force in the fashion world in the 1950s, introducing a new silhouette to the Dior clothing collection each season, including the Princess line of 1951, the "H" line of 1954, and the "A" and "Y" lines of 1955. Fine dressmaking made a comeback during this period, among women who could afford it, since the construction of the desired shapes required skilled hands.

This custom work, which was less cost-effective and less available, quickly disappeared though, as cheap manufacturing and one-size-fits-all patterns became popular in the late 1950's. Christian Dior died on October 23rd, 1957. Dior Without Christian Dior The 1st Christian Dior clothing collection after Dior's death was a sensation. Designed in just nine weeks by the 21 year old Yves Saint Laurent, the clothes were as meticulously made and perfectly proportioned as Dior's in the same exquisite fabrics, but the young designer made them softer, lighter and easier to wear. In 1960, Saint Laurent was conscripted in the army and, after demobilization, opened his own couture house. He was replaced at Dior by Marc Bohan, who instilled his conservative style on the collections until 1988 when Italian Gianfranco Ferre took over as head designer until 1995. Since 1996, John Galliano, is chief designer of Christian Dior.

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 Fashion Designer | Christian Dior Biography, Information, Videos, News and the Latest Runway Collections. Fashion Biography Christian Dior, Fashion Designer Christian Dior is the most recognized name in fashion. Fashion Designer Christian Dior was born in Normandy, France in 1905. At his parents" insistence, he studied political science. After military service and several years of indecision, he returned to Paris in 1935 and began his design career by selling sketches. His hat designs were initially more successful than his dress designs. But he concentrated on his dress designs and was hired by Robert Piguet in 1938. During the war, he served in the South of France, then returned again to Paris in 1941 and worked for Lucien Lelong, a much larger design house. In 1946, he was able to open his own house, backed by textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac.

For his first collection in 1947, he created the extremely popular New Look, which featured rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and a very full skirt. Dior created an opulent clothing style which contrasted the severe living conditions of post war France. After the war, he helped to re establish Paris as the capital of world fashion . Dior became the last great dictator of style in the 1950s. Each collection throughout this period had a theme classic suits, ballerina length skirts, the H line in 1954, and A and Y lines in 1955. Together with his partner Jaques Rouet, Dior was the pioneer for license agreements in the fashion business. Already in 1948, he decided to arrange licensed production of furs, socks, ties, perfumes, and clothing in regionally seperate production centers. Thus spreading the brand name quickly around the globe. In 1953, he hired Yves Saint Laurent as an assistant. After Dior"s sudden death in October 1957 in Italy, Saint Laurent became head designer and introduced the trapeze dress in his first collection for the house.

When Saint Laurent was called for military duty in 1960, Marc Bohan took over, remaining until Gianfranco Ferre became designer in 1989. Ferre is to be replaced by the end of 1996. After much talk about possible successors of Ferre, it has been confirmed in October 1996, that John Galliano will take his place as chief designer for Dior. Galliano, known as the current enfant terrible of the fashion business was responsible for Givenchy for two seasons before switching to Dior. It is believed that Dior"s parent company LVMH wants rejuvenate Dior"s appearence, hoping it will create an equally astonishing run on Dior products like Tom Ford created for Gucci. Indeed, Galliano"s appraoch to fashion resembles Dior"s intention when he started in 1947. In contrast to Chanel for example, Dior established a romantic and very feminine look, which emphasised luxury rather than comfort. Galliano, as Dior"s successor, creates an equally feminine style, blending today"s freedom of expression with the reminiscence of past opulence.

Dior is a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Pret a Porter. Selected Lines Christian Dior Boutique Fourrier (furs) Christian Dior Coordinee (diffusion), discontinued in 1994 Selected Awards Parsons Medal for Distinguished Achievement (1956) Ownership Since 1990, the Christian Dior S.A. belongs to Europe"s biggest luxury products manufacturer, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), which is owned and operated by Bernand Arnault through the investment company Financiere Agache. The company is listed at the Paris stock exchange. The Christian Dior S.A. itself holds 42% of the LVMH assets and is the holding company for the fashion brands Christian Dior Couture, Kenzo, Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, and Louis Vuitton. The group achieved in in 1996 sales worth of 32.35 billion Francs ($6.33 billion). Performance Direct sales of Dior clothes (including licences) climbed in 1994 to $193 million.

In 1996, the Christian Dior Couture division achieved a turnover of 1.2 billion Francs ($235 million). Including Dior perfumes, 85% of the sales are achieved in export, with Asia on top of export sales. LVMH"s move to employ Galliano and Alexander McQueen as the new star designers is said to be partly a reaction to the slumping perfumes sales of the LVMH"s fragrance business (Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy fragrances). In the first half of 1996, LVMH achived only 70 million Francs ($13.7 million) compared to 380 million Francs ($74.3 million) in the previous period. Distribution Currently, Dior operates 160 boutiques worldwide, 15 of them in Japan. Clothing is exclusively sold in the Dior stores. Other retailers only carry licensed Dior products like eye wear, lingerie, ties, Bady Dior clothing, perfumes, and other accessories.

Since LVMH acquired in 1997 the Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) group of stores, which are mostly located in Asia, the Dior distribution has been expanded to the 165 DFS outlets. Since 1993, Francois Baufume has been head of all fashion activities of Dior. Currently, Dior is reducing the number of its licenses which reached over 300 in the early "90s and also his franchise arrangements, in order to regain control over Dior products. Several marketing surveys have shown that Dior is the most widely recognized brand in top fashion to date. Christian Dior is a wolf in very tight fitting clothing due to its 42% controlling stake in luxury goods giant LVMH. Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault and family control Christian Dior. Related Topics Best Fall Fashion Trends For 2012 For Fall 2012 designers are inspired by a wide range of influences, from the elaborate details of brocade and metallic gold embellishments to the dynamic mix of military chic and power pantsuits. Colo By Courtney Lynne I am an analyst by profession and researching is my passion. I also love to share my knowledge.

Contact me on Google + and Twitter . Find us on Google+ Advertisement Christian Dior / - Design/Designer Information Christian Dior Fashion Designer (1905-1957) The most influential fashion designer of the late 1940s and 1950s, CHRISTIAN DIOR (1905 to 1957) dominated 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. “My mother says that when I was little my grandfather used to take me and my cousins on one side after dinner and ask us what we wanted to be when he grew up, and I’d say ‘Christian Dior’,�? recalled the French fashion designer Christian Lacroix.�? He was so famous in France at the time. It seemed as if he wasn’t a man, but an institution.�? When Lacroix was growing up in Arles during the 1950s, Christian Dior was indisputably the world’s most famous fashion designer.

His name was known all over the world and his label accounted for half of France’s haute couture exports. The Dior client list ran from Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich to Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Windsor. A short, pear-shaped man, with a shiny bald pate and habitually nervous expression, he was courted by Parisian society: but so shy that he could barely bring himself to bow to his audience at the end of each couture show. Fastidious to a fault, Dior refused to receive any man who was not wearing a tie: yet was so superstitious that he consulted his clairvoyant before every major decision. Christian Dior was born in 1905 in Granville, a lively seaside town on the Normandy coast. He was the second of the five children of Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertiliser manufacturer. 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 Ecole des Sciences Politiques (nicknamed Sciences Po’) in Paris to take a degree in politics which, or so his parents hoped, would prepare him for a diplomatic career. All Dior wanted 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 did not appear above the door. Galerie Jacques 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. When World War II war began in 1939, Dior served as an officer for the year until France’s surrender.

He joined his father and a sister on a farm in Provence until he was offered a job in Paris by the couturier Lucien Lelong, who was lobbying the Germans to revive the couture trade. Dior spent the rest of the War dressing the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators. 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. Dior was invited by a childhood friend from Granville to revive Philippe et Gaston, a struggling clothing company owned by Marcel Boussac, the “King of Cotton�? with an empire of racing stables, newspapers and textile mills. Boussac met Dior and listened to his theory that the public was ready for a new style after the War. Dior’s description of a luxurious new look with a sumptuous silhouette and billowing skirts had an obvious appeal to a man who owed his wealth to selling large quantities of fabric. Boussac agreed to launch the new couture house in style with a then-unprecedented budget of FFr60 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 Christian Dior couture show was scheduled for 12 February 1947. 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 Schiaparelli’s slinky 1930s silhouette. 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�?. “It’s quite a revelation dear Christian,�? pronounced Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, the US magazine. “Your dresses have such a new look.�? 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 mobilised 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. Dior’s “flower women�? fitted the bill perfectly. His 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. 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 season’s show for the British royal family in London, although King George V 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. Behind the scenes Jacques Rouët built up the Dior business. The old 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. Rouët realised that the future lay in diversifying further afield into more products and international markets. Eager to capitalise on the publicity generated by the New Look, he opened a fur subsidiary and a ready-to-wear boutique on New York’s Fifth Avenue as well as launching a Dior perfume, named Miss Dior with the US market in mind. Christian Dior too had sound commercial instincts.

When a US hosiery company offered Rouët the then-enormous fee of $10,000 for the rights to manufacture Dior stockings, the couturier proposed waïving the fee in favour of a percentage of the product’s sales thereby introducing the royalty payment system to fashion. Dior’s approach to design was equally pragmatic. Resisting the temptation to experiment, he adhered to his luxurious look with the structured silhouette of padding, starch and corsets, which was so flattering to his middle-aged clients. So conservative were those clients that when Dior called a suit the “Jean-Paul Sartre�? in honour of the radical philosopher, no one bought it and he stuck to ‘safer’ names in future. He even adhered to the same commercial formula for each collection: one third new, one third adaptations of familiar styles and one third proven classics. The newly wealthy Dior bought an old mill near Fontainebleau outside Paris and a flower farm at Montauroux in the heart of Provence, where he could potter around with Bobby, his dog, and indulge his love of art, antiques and gardening.

Still shy, he left socialising to Suzanne Luling, his vivacious sales director, and he grew even more superstitious with age. Every collection included a coat called the “Granville�?, named after his birthplace. At least one model wore a bunch of his favourite flower, lily of the valley. And Dior never began a couture show without having consulted his tarot card reader. 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, Cristobál Balenciaga. Yet neither had the same support structure as Dior who, as well as Jacques Rouët and Suzanne Luling, had the “three muses�? who worked with him on the collections: Raymonde Zehnmacker who ran the studio; Marguerite Carré, head of the workrooms; and Mitza Bricard, the glamorous hat designer and chief stylist. The house was run along rigidly hierarchical lines. Each of the vendeuses, or 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 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’s, 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 the most prestigious Paris couture house, Dior attracted the most talented assistants.

One was Pierre Cardin, an Italian-born tailor who was Dior’s star assistant 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. As timid as Dior himself, the young Saint Laurent flourished in the feminine atmosphere of the couture house and contributed 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 northern Italy hoping to lose weight in order to impress a young lover. Ten days later 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 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 first Christian Dior collection after 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 the ‘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 by Marc Bohan, who instilled his conservative style on the collections until 1996 when the iconoclastic young Briton, John Galliano, was appointed chief designer of Christian Dior by the company’s new owner, the LVMH luxury goods group. © Design Museum BIOGRAPHY 1905 Born in Granville on the Gulf of St Malo on the Normandy coast, as the second of five children a wealthy fertiliser manufacturer. 1910 The family move to Paris and Dior enrols at the Lycée Gerson 1923 To please his father, Dior studies at the Ecole des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po’) to prepare to join the diplomatic corps. 1928 Opens a modern art gallery, Galerie Jacques Bonjean, with a friend and financial backing from his father. 1931 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.

1938 The couturier Robert Piguet employs Dior as a design assistant at his new couture house. 1939 When World War II begins, Dior is called up into the French Army, but is demobilised after a year when France surrenders and joins his family on a farm in Provence. 1941 Returns to Paris to work as a design assistant to Lucien Lelong. 1946 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 Rouët. 1947 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. 1948 Dior and Rouët 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.

1950 Designs a dress for Marlene Dietrich in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright and, the following year, a suit for Dietrich in No Highway in the Sky. 1954 After years of variations on the New Look, Dior unveils his new direction, the French Bean Line or Flat Look. 1955 Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent joins Dior as a design assistant. The Grande Boutique opens on Avenue Montaigne and Dior launches a cosmetics range. 1956 Designs over a dozen dresses for Ava Gardner in The Little Hut. 1957 Christian Dior dies of a heart attack after choking on a fishbone while on a rest cure at a spa in Montecatini, Italy. Dior’s funeral in Paris is attended by more than 2,500 people. Yves Saint Laurent is named as Dior’s successor and unveils his first collection in January 1958. © Design Museum Dior Dior Chanel | Gucci | DolceandGabbana | LouisVuitton |Dior| Versace | Prada "Fashion Designer Christian Dior (1905-1957) was born in Normandy, France.

At his parents' insistence, he studied political science. After military service and several years of indecision, he returned to Paris in 1935 and began his design career by selling sketches. His hat designs were initially more successful than his dress designs. But he concentrated on his dress designs and was hired by Robert Piguet in 1938. During the war, he served in the South of France, then returned again to Paris in 1941 and worked for Lucien Lelong, a much larger design house. In 1946, he was able to open his own house, backed by textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac. For his first collection in 1947, he created the extremely popular "New Look", which featured rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and a very full skirt. Dior created an opulent clothing style which contrasted the severe living conditions of post-war France. After the war, he helped to re-establish Paris as the capital of world-fashion . Dior became the last great dictator of style in the 1950s.

Each collection throughout this period had a theme - classic suits, ballerina-length skirts, the H-line in 1954, and A- and Y-lines in 1955. Together with his partner Jaques Rouet, Dior was the pioneer for license agreements in the fashion business. Already in 1948, he decided to arrange licensed production of furs, socks, ties, perfumes, and clothing in regionally seperate production centers. Thus spreading the brand name quickly around the globe. In 1953, he hired Yves Saint Laurent as an assistant. After Dior's sudden death in October 1957 in Italy, Saint Laurent became head designer and introduced the trapeze dress in his first collection for the house. When Saint Laurent was called for military duty in 1960, Marc Bohan took over, remaining until Gianfranco Ferre became designer in 1989. Ferre is to be replaced by the end of 1996 After much talk about possible successors of Ferre, it has been confirmed in October 1996, that John Galliano will take his place as chief designer for Dior.

Galliano, known as the current enfant terrible of the fashion business was responsible for Givenchy for two seasons before switching to Dior. It is believed that Dior's parent-company LVMH wants rejuvenate Dior's appearence, hoping it will create an equally astonishing run on Dior products like Tom Ford created for Gucci. Indeed, Galliano's appraoch to fashion resembles Dior's intention when he started in 1947. In contrast to Chanel for example, Dior established a romantic and very feminine look, which emphasised luxury rather than comfort. Galliano, as Dior's successor, creates an equally feminine style, blending today's freedom of expression with the reminiscence of past opulence. Dior is a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Pret-a-Porter. " (Fashion Informant) Christian Dior biography Christian Dior biography Died: Montecatini, Italy 1957 Copyright © AFP / Collection Roger-Viollet Born into a wealthy family, Dior was destined for a career in architecture.

But, after studying political science at Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris, he received money from his father to finance a small art gallery. However, the gallery failed forcing Dior to join the French Army in 1940. After two years he left the Army and joined fashion house Lucien Lelong, where he worked alongside Pierre Balmain as the house’s main designers. On the 16th December 1946 Dior founded his fashion house with the help of Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate. By 1947 Dior had attracted attention with his overt use of fabric, bustier-style bodices, wasp waists and curvaceous silhouettes. Crowned creator of the ‘New Look’, Dior was heralded as an overnight sensation. Taking inspiration from his original desire to become an architect, Dior stated that ‘as a designer, he had to follow the rules and principles of architecture and respect the law of gravity’. The cinema rushed to use Dior’s designs and the world’s most elegant and fashionable women of the time chose his designs, including the Duchess of Windsor, Rita Hayworth , Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich .

Dior designed Dietrich’s entire wardrobe in “Stage Fright” by Alfred Hitchcock. With his favourite places to sketch being in the bath or bed, his designs dominated the pages of fashion magazines. New silhouettes and lines were created including the Oblique line in 1950, the Oval line and Envol line in 1951, the Princess line and Profile line of 1952, the H line in 1954 , the A line followed by the Y line in 1955. His radical change from austerity fashions helped re-establish Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World War Two. In 1957 Dior became the first designer to be featured on the cover of TIME magazine proving he was true fashion royalty. Christian Dior’s died in Italy in October 1957 leaving one of the most prestigious fashion houses in the world without its founder and leader. Having worked as a design assistant for Dior, Yves Saint Laurent was appointed head designer aged 21. He worked there for two years before being conscripted into the army. Marc Bohan succeeded Laurent and remained for 28 years.

Bohan pushed Dior’s traditional refinement and elegance. The house still held onto its prestigious reputation after Dior’s death. Her Majesty Farah Pahlavi chose Dior for her coronation and Marilyn Monroe wore Dior in her last ever photo shoot. In 1984 the fashion house was bought by Bernard Arnault and Gianfranco Ferré was appointed as Artistic Director succeeding Bohan. Ferré brought his excitement and love of baroque to the collections. With the designer’s intense creativity, the fashion house had brought back theatricality to the fashion world. John Galliano replaced Ferré in October 1996. Galliano was publicly sacked from Dior in 2011 due to anti-semantic remarks. Bill Gaytten ex Galliano assistant for both his own brand and Dior took his place as interim designer. After receiving mixed reviews, Gaytten was replaced by Raf Simons in April 2012. A master of shapes and silhouettes, Christian Dior turned the traditional feeling of couture upside down.

Creating contemporary fashion, Dior is credited with creating the ‘New Look’, the style helped propel a fashion and social revolution Christian Dior biography Written by Saxony Dudbridge Saxony Dudbridge was one of the first contributors to the Catwalk Yourself project, Saxony studies International Fashion Marketing and she is responsible for our great History and Designers Biographies sections. Leave a Reply Christian Dior | neapolitan collection shop Christian Dior Christian Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France, the second of the five children. Dior's family had hopes he would become a diplomat, but he was artistic and wished to be involved in fashion. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each. In 1928, Dior left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery. Three years later, the gallery had to be closed after the death of Dior's mother and brother and a financial disaster in the family’s fertilizer business that resulted in his father losing control of Dior Frères. From then until about 1940 he worked with fashion designer Robert Piguet, when he was called up for military service.

In 1942, when Dior left the Army, he joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. In December 1946 Dior founded his fashion house, backed by Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate. The actual name of the line of his first collection, presented in early 1947, was Corolle (literally the botanical term corolla or circlet of flower petals in English), but the phrase New Look was coined for it by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. 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. Dior was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes. 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 "New Look" revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.

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, Cristobál Balenciaga. As the most prestigious Paris couture house, Dior attracted the most talented assistants. One was Pierre Cardin, an Italian-born tailor who was Dior’s star assistant 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. As timid as Dior himself, the young Saint Laurent flourished in the feminine atmosphere of the couture house and contributed thirty-five outfits for the autumn 1957 collection. When all the fittings for the collection were finished, Dior took off for a holiday at his favorite spa town of Montecatini in northern Italy. Christian Dior died ten days later on October 23, 1957. The first Christian Dior collection after Dior’s death was a sensation.

Designed in just nine weeks by the 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent, 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, French entrepreneur and owner of the Maison Dior, 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 drafted in the army and after demobilization he opened his own couture house. After Yves Saint Laurent left Dior in 1960, Marc Bohan assumed the role of creative director. Bohan moved from Paris to New York in 1958 to work as a coat designer for an American manufacture. Here he was asked to help Christian Dior design a new collection, however Dior died before the collection was created.

Despite his death Bohan did design for Dior. From 1958 to 1960 he had the job of designing for the Christian Dior, London line, adapting it to suit a new market. However, once he was appointed Dior’s new creative director, he found himself returning to Paris. Having echoed Christian Dior’s training and career, Bohan understood the style, keeping the look elegant, romantic and refined with a youthful spirit. Bohan’s Fall/Winter 1966 collection was critically acclaimed—taking inspiration from the film ‘Doctor Zhivago,’ he used fur-trimmed, belted tweed coats paired with long black boots. In 1989, he was persuaded to leave Dior to join the flailing British label Norman Hartnell and was subsequently replaced as head designer by Italian-born Gianfranco Ferré. The first such non-Frenchman, Ferré left behind traditional Dior associations of flirtation and romance, and introduced concepts and a style described as "refined, sober and strict." Ferré headed design for Haute Couture, Haute Fourrure, Women’s Ready-to-Wear, Ready-to-Wear Furs and Women’s Accessories collections.

His first collection was awarded the Dé d’Or in 1989. Under the influence of Anna Wintour, CEO Arnault appointed LVMH moved British designer John Galliano to Christian Dior on October 14, 1996, replacing Ferré. This choice of a British designer, once again instead of a French one, is said to have "ruffled some French feathers." Arnault compared Galliano to Christian Dior himself, noting that "Galliano has a creative talent very close to that of Christian Dior. He has the same extraordinary mixture of romanticism, feminism, and modernity that symbolized Monsieur Dior. In all of his creations – his suits, his dresses – one finds similarities to the Dior style." His first couture show for Dior coincided with the label's 50th anniversary, on January 20, 1997. Galliano has been quoted as identifying his love of theatre and femininity as central to his creations: "my role is to seduce,” he has said.

In 2009, Galliano received the French Legion of Honour, previously awarded to such fashion luminaries as Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Azzedine Alaïa and Suzy Menkes, to name a few. In 2011, John Galliano received a high profile dismissal from Dior preceding a trial in Paris during which he was found guilty of using anti-Semitic insults in a Paris bar. After months of rumors of who was to take over the helm of the esteemed label, it was finally confirmed in April 2012 that Raf Simons, who left his post as creative director of Jil Sander in February, has taken the place of John Galliano at the house. The designer will show his first collection for Dior during Couture Week in July 2012, and will hold the official title of "artistic director." When Simons' name was initially linked to the role last year, the industry had been surprised, since he is renowned for his trend-setting minimalistic designs for Jil Sander, a stark contrast with Mr. Galliano's flamboyant signature aesthetic.

The French fashion house released a statement that said Simons will “inspire and propel [the label] into the 21st Century.” Much like his predecessor, Simons has one eye on the history of the brand but aims to bring his own point of view to the label. Referring to what he calls “mid-century modernism,” Simons told the New York Times, "My aim is a very modern Dior, but at the end of the day, I also look back."

Question: Who became chief women's wear designer at Christian Dior in October 1996?
Answer: John Galliano