FASHION HOME WORK: CHRISTIAN DIOR CJP FASHION HOME WORK: CHRISTIAN DIOR On this day in 1905, Christian Dior was born in a seaside town on coast the of Normandy. The designer began his career by selling fashion sketches outside his house for roughly 10 cents a piece. He later founded his fashion house in Paris with designs that were far more voluptuous than other recent styles, influenced by World War II and rations on fabric. A great majority of his designs flared out at the waist and became know as "The New Look", giving models an hourglass figure. So predominant was this style that he is quoted as saying, "I have designed flower women.” Dior hired Yves Saint Laurent as an intern and after Dior’s death in October 1957, YSL succeeded him as the head designer for Dior. Follow us @ Instagram: Christian Dior Biography, Quotes & Facts | British Vogue By Bibby Sowray Thursday 5 April 2012 Christian Dior was a French couturier, best known for his eponymous fashion house which is often referred to as just Dior.

Born in the seaside town of Granville on the coast of Normandy in 1905, he was the son of a wealthy fertiliser manufacturer and was one of five children. Aged five, he moved with his family to Paris. Although his parents had hopes of him becoming a diplomat, Dior was artistically inclined and began to sell his sketches on the street to make pocket money. Upon leaving school, Dior took over a small art gallery which his father bought for him, where he and a friend sold work by artists including Pablo Picasso. Following the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the death of both his mother and his brother, and the collapse of his father's business, Dior was forced to close his art gallery. He then went to work with fashion designer Robert Piguet until he was called up for military service in 1940. At the end of his service in 1942, he began working for couturier Lucien Long, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers.

During the war, Lelong - like other French ateliers including Jeanne Lanvin and Nina Ricci - dressed the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators as a way of preserving the fashion industry throughout the conflict for both economic and artistic reasons. At the same time, Dior's younger sister Catherine joined the French Resistance, resulting in her capture by the Gestapo and subsequent imprisonment at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived and was liberated in 1945. In 1947, Dior named his debut fragrance Miss Dior as a tribute to her. He founded the house of Christian Dior on December 16, 1946 at 30 Avenue Montaigne Paris, backed by Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate. Officially, the house of Dior considers 1947 to be the year of conception as that is when Dior showed his first collection. On February 12, 1947, Dior showed his debut collection,presenting the 90 different looks.

Named "Corolle" and "Huit", thelines were quickly christened the "New Look", a phrase coined byUS Harper's Bazaar magazine editor Carmel Snow.The look consisted of a calf-length, full skirt, a cinched waistand fuller bust than had been seen since the turn of the century. Arebuttal to post-war fabric restrictions - the average dress used20 yards of fabric - the look received some criticism upon release.The opulence of his designs contrasted with the grim post-warreality of Europe, and helped re-establish Paris as the joyfulfashion capital it had once been. The house was inundated with orders and world-famous stars such as Rita Hayworth and Margot Fonteyn bought and wore pieces, raising Dior's profile significantly. Dior was even invited to stage a private presentation of the collection for the British royal family - although King George V reportedly forbade the young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, from wearing the New Look in case it set a bad example at a time when rationing was still in force. He was known to be very superstitious, a quality which increased with age.

Each collection included a coat named after his place of birth, Granville; in each show at least one model wore a bunch of his favourite flower, lily of the valley; and he never began a couture show without having consulted his tarot card reader. Dior established a luxury ready-to-wear house on the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street in New York in November 1948. It was the first of its kind. In the same year, he launched Dior Parfums - with Miss Dior being the first fragrance to launch, and Diorama launching the following year. In 1949, Dior was the first couturier to arrange licensed production of his designs. Having realised the importance of the complete look - and that the New Look could not be successfully achieved without the correct Dior shoes, gloves and hat - Dior, together with business partner Jacques Rouët, licensed his name to a range of luxury accessories. Furs, stockings, ties and perfume were also manufactured in regional centres across the world, spreading his brand name quickly around the globe.

Although this move was heavily criticised by the French Chamber of Couture - who denounced the move as cheapening the haute couture industry - licensing became a profitable move for Dior and the atelier's lesson was followed by nearly all of the period's fashion houses. In 1955, the 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Christian Dior later met with Yves Saint Laurent's mother, Lucienne Mathieu-Saint Laurent, in 1957 to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She said at the time she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time. Shortly after his meeting with Saint Laurent's mother, Christian Dior suffered a fatal heart attack on October 24, 1957, leaving the house in disarray. Some 2,500 people attended his funeral, including all of his staff and famous clients led by the Duchess of Windsor. In an attempt to stabilise the label, Jacques Rouët appointed the then-21-year-old Yves Saint-Laurent as artistic director.

Saint Laurent remained in the position until he was conscripted into the army, during which time he was dismissed from Dior by Rouët and replaced by Marc Bohan. Bohan proved very successful as Saint Laurent's replacement, defining a new era and new silhouette for Dior, the Slim Look, a more modern and svelte version of Dior's iconic shape. In 1978, the Boussac Group filed for bankruptcy and its assets, including Dior, were sold to the Willot Group. After it went into administration, Bernard Arnault and his investment group purchased the Willot Group's holdings for "one symbolic franc" in 1984. On assuming power, Arnault drastically altered Dior's operations. In 1985, Arnault became chairman, CEO and managing director of Christian Dior. He repositioned it as the holding company Christian Dior S.A and in 1988, took a 32 per cent equity stake into the share capital of LVMH creating one of the leading and most influential luxury goods conglomerates in the world, whilst Christian Dior remains to stand alone as a megabrand in it's own right.

Gianfranco Ferre was made stylistic director of Christian Dior in 1989, replacing Marc Bohan. He remained in this position until 1997. In 1997, Arnault appointed British designer John Galliano to replace Marc Bohan at the creative helm. "Galliano has a creative talent very close to that of Christian Dior. He has the same extraordinary mixture of romanticism, feminism and modernity that symbolised Monsieur Dior. In all of his creations - his suits, his dresses - one finds similarities to the Dior style," said Arnault of Galliano. Galliano was creative director of Christian Dior until March 2011, when he was dismissed after being filmed slurring anti-Semitic remarks and allegedly assaulting a member of the public whilst heavily intoxicated in a Paris bar. Galliano's former-design director Bill Gayten headed up the house until April 9 2012 when it was announced, after more than a year of rumour and speculation, that Raf Simons had taken over as 'artistic director' at the house.

30 Famous Fashion Quotes for the Fashionable at Heart 30 Famous Fashion Quotes for the Fashionable at Heart What's Your Fashion Statement? By Simran Khurana Updated April 30, 2016. Flip through glossy fashion magazines and you will find gorgeous beauties staring at you. Do you ever wonder why some people make a career out of looking pretty? Do appearances matter? If beauty is only skin deep, why do we have a multi-billion dollar industry working for the epidermis? People who don't like to fuss about their looks often dismiss fashion as a vain hobby. Fashion, according to skeptics, is an excuse to spend big money on frivolous pursuits. While it is easy to judge fashion and style as an unnecessary extension of our social needs, fashion is not a figment of a bored, rich housewife's imagination. In Ralph Lauren's words, "Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.” Can You Be Fashionable on a Budget? You can't afford a Prada bag or Gucci perfume. Does that mean you can't be fashionable? Many fashion experts understand the need for low-budget fashion.

continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World If you look up magazines, and online websites, you will find many fashion ideas to stay fashionable within your budget. Create your own fashion statement with your trendy and simple ideas. Fashion Is for All Whether you are a student, a mother, or a grandmother, you can be fashionable. Fashion does not mean you try to be someone else. You can be fashionable regardless of age, shape, or profession. Find the inspiration to be fashionable without spending beyond your budget. These famous fashion quotes reveal a new layer that lies beneath the surface. It's not just about fashion. It's about wearing your statement on your sleeve. Yves Saint Laurent Fashions fade, style is eternal. They think him the best dressed man, whose dress is so fit for his use that you cannot notice or remember to describe it. I don't do fashion, I am fashion. When a person is in fashion, all they do is right. Style is primarily a matter of instinct. Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets. Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.

Coco Chanel I like fashion to go down to the street, but I can't accept that it should originate there. We must never confuse elegance with snobbery. Dressing is a way of life. The difference between style and fashion is quality. In difficult times fashion is always outrageous. Oleg Cassini Fashion anticipates, and elegance is a state of mind... a mirror of the time in which we live, a translation of the future, and should never be static. Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are. If you are not in fashion, you are nobody. Fashion is architecture. It is a matter of proportions. Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. Yves Saint Laurent Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it. I've always thought of the T-shirt as the Alpha and Omega of the fashion alphabet. Yves Saint Laurent I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity -- all I hope for in my clothes. There's never a new fashion but it's old. A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. What a deformed thief this fashion is.

The goal I seek is to have people refine their style through my clothing without having them become victims of fashion. I don't design clothes. I design dreams. Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable. A designer is only as good as the star who wears her clothes. Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to be annoying to other women. When in doubt, wear red. 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. The Story of Christian Dior Christian Dior Christian Dior Christian Dior was born in Granville 21 January 1905 in a comfortable family. He abandoned very quickly his studies of political science to devote to drawing. With the help of his parents, he opened a gallery of paintings and exhibits the works of great artists such as Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, etc... but the stock market crisis of 1929 caused the ruin of his parents, who forced to close his gallery. In 1935, he sold his first fashion sketches before being hired by the "Figaro illustré".

In 1938, Robert Piguet, the most famous Parisian couturier of the day, will call him to integrate his team. In 1941, he joined Lucien Lelong, another famous couturier with whom he designed collections for several seasons before founding his own label in 1946, with the support of Marcel Boussac. He settled at 30 Avenue Montaigne. In 1947, he presented his first collection entitled "Carole line" which is a real revolution. The American press renames it the style "New Look" rounded shoulders, thin waist with full skirt-shaped corolla 20 centimeters from the ground. With Christian Dior, Paris had become the city of the world where born the most beautiful dresses. Later, Line H "Sack Look" for Americans is distinguished by short clothes and without corsage (1954). "New-Look" Model In the United States, the designer receives Oscar fashion. But success would not have been complete without creating his perfume company and the appearance of his first chypre fragrance called MISS DIOR (1947).

This fragrance will be launched at the beginning, in a Baccarat bottle shaped like amphora, later, in a vial with pattern hound’s-tooth of the Tweed. Miss Dior version "amphora" (reissue) Miss Dior version "hound’s-tooth" Eau Fraîche DIORAMA created in 1949, FRESH WATER in 1953, DIORISSIMO in 1956 and DIORLING in 1963. In 1955, Christian Dior hired as assistant Yves Saint-Laurent. In 1957, during a trip to Italy, Dior died of a heart attack. He was only 52 years old. His international fame only lasted a decade but it shall bring him into the legend of haute couture. Yves Saint Laurent take up the torch after the death of designer Marc Bohan then succeeded him and remains at the head of the house for several decades before handing over to Gianfranco Ferre and the flamboyant John Galliano.

In 1966, Dior launched his first men's fragrance, EAU SAUVAGE, created by Edmond Roudnitska (famous "perfume tester"). This fragrance for men will become a "classic." Edmond Roudnitska also composed DIORELLA in 1972. He later said "DIORELLA is the perfume that I'm most proud of". Sample "Eau Sauvage" DIOR DIOR create in 1976, DIORESSENCE in 1979, JULES in 1980 and EAU SAUVAGE EXTREME in 1984. Bottle perfume Dioressence Sample Dune In 1985, launch POISON perfume amber, floral and spicy. In 1988, creation of FAHRENHEIT, in 1991, DUNE composed by Jean-Louis Sieuzac, in 1994, TENDRE POISON, in 1995, DOLCE VITA created by Pierre Bourdon and Maurice Roger.

In 1997, DUNE Men, in 1998, EAU DE DOLCE VITA and HYPNOTIC POISON and, in 1999, J’ADORE that was a huge success and represented a turnover of 130 million euros the year of its launch. In 2000, creation of REMEMBER ME, in 2001, FOREVER AND EVER. Hypnotic poison Sample I love Dior Créations in 2002: “I LOVE DIOR”, “HIGHER”, “TELLEMENT OR” of “J'ADORE” and “DIOR ADDICT”. Acquired in 1968, Christian Dior is part of the LVMH group. She makes her own perfumes : its main plant is located in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in Loiret Composition of Miss Dior 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 / - 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 Christian Dior's colorful legacy - Houston Chronicle Christian Dior's colorful legacy John Galliano celebrates 60 years of glamour from France's most famous fashion house CLIFFORD PUGH, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Published 5:30 am, Thursday, October 4, 2007 Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Image 1of/4 Close Image 1 of 4 A Dior by John Galliano embroidered wool tweed one-shoulder dress, $7,410, shows off one of the designer's fall innovations: a 40s-inspired bustle. Megan Tipps of Page Parkes Models wears it with Dior's Samourai clutch, $2,700, and Dior plissé Dorsey pumps, $990, all from Dior boutique. Earrings, $275, Joseph. Hair and makeup by Kathy White of A.M. Studios. Shot on location at Richmond Hall, the Menil Collection.

less A Dior by John Galliano embroidered wool tweed one-shoulder dress, $7,410, shows off one of the designer's fall innovations: a 40s-inspired bustle. Megan Tipps of Page Parkes Models wears it with Dior's ... more Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Image 2 of 4 The fall ready-to-wear collection is loaded with sparkle. The Dior by John Galliano light wool crepe gown from our cover is shown here with Penny Preville chandelier earrings, $7,000, and Yossi Harari bangles, $1,625-$6,000, Judith Ann Jewels. Dior by John Galliano purple satin crepe jacket with fur trim, $8,835, and skirt, $1,635, Dior boutique; Erica Courtney pendant, $22,000, Tahitian pearl necklace, $18,000, and earrings, $11,760, Judith Ann Jewels. less The fall ready-to-wear collection is loaded with sparkle.

The Dior by John Galliano light wool crepe gown from our cover is shown here with Penny Preville chandelier earrings, $7,000, and Yossi Harari bangles, ... more Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Image 3 of 4 Mega-bow, mega-sleeves, mega-color. Dior by John Galliano waxed lamb and mink coat, $17,990, Dior boutique. Erica Courtney earrings, $11,760, and Sevan ring, $10,230, Judith Ann Jewels. Mega-bow, mega-sleeves, mega-color. Dior by John Galliano waxed lamb and mink coat, $17,990, Dior boutique. Erica Courtney earrings, $11,760, and Sevan ring, $10,230, Judith Ann Jewels. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Image 4 of 4 It takes more than a demure bauble to pop against the lush fabrics, eye-popping hues, shiny embellishments and slightly outrageous scale of this collection.

The Dior by John Galliano silk gazar bustier cocktail dress, left, $6,990, Dior boutique, is perfectly offset with South Sea pearl and diamond earrings, $15,600, and a 56-inch strand of silver Tahitian pearls, $7,200, with a platinum and South Sea pearl pendant, $21,800, Judith Ann Jewels. less It takes more than a demure bauble to pop against the lush fabrics, eye-popping hues, shiny embellishments and slightly outrageous scale of this collection. The Dior by John Galliano silk gazar bustier cocktail ... more Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Christian Dior's colorful legacy 1 / 4 Back to Gallery When John Galliano was hired as creative director at Christian Dior , he seemed an odd choice for the grand French fashion house. Known as the enfant terrible of the fashion scene, the "punk'' designer showed up in dreadlocks and no shoes at his first executive committee meeting. Even worse, he was (gasp!) British. But Galliano had a great respect for the Dior legacy, and felt he had a lot in common with the legendary founder.

Dior, too, took pleasure in shocking and courting controversy. "Gossip, even malicious rumors, are worth more than the most expensive publicity campaign in the world,'' Dior once said. When Dior designed his first collection in 1947, he shook the fashion world out of its post-World War II doldrums. His sophisticated, New Look silhouette replaced dour, shapeless styles with dresses cinched at the waist and twirling, fan-shaped skirts. He created eye-catching suits by padding corset jackets at the hips. He added shape and style with bustles and bows, dots and draping. Dior built an empire selling shoes, fur, jewelry, fragrances, lingerie, even men's ties. He created the model for today's fashion business with licenses in 41 countries. So it was a cruel shock when, vacationing in Italy in 1957, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack. The legacy continued under his 21-year-old protegé, Yves Saint Laurent , who created a sensation with his first collection in 1958. It introduced the trapeze silhouette, with its narrow shoulders, a triangular shape and a wide, swinging hem.

But after only a year at Dior, Saint Laurent was drafted into the French armed forces and suffered a nervous breakdown. The company replaced him with the young designer Marc Bohan . For three decades, Bohan's chic designs attracted a steady celebrity clientele, including Elizabeth Taylor , Princess Grace and her daughter, Princess Caroline . Italian designer Gianfranco Ferré succeeded Bohan, controversially, in 1989 - until then, only French designers had headed up French fashion houses. Ferré's tenure at Dior was successful but uninspired; and by the mid-1990s, the company had lost its buzz. In 1996, its owners, the French fashion conglomerate LVMH, began looking for someone new to restore its controversial edge. They got their man in Galliano, who modernized the line while staying true to the Dior vision. Backed by LVMH's deep pockets, Galliano turned runway shows into spectacular theater."I have 20 minutes to tell you the love story of the season and seduce you into our world,'' he explained in a recent magazine interview."The show has to speak without words. The stars are the designs.

The models (are) the silent heroines that bring the drama to life.'' In 1998, he presented the "Diorent Express'' haute couture show on a train at the Gare D'Austerlitz railway station in Paris and featured models as Pocahontases in American Indian chic. His "Matrix'' collection in 1999 featured tough-edged, futuristic clothing on a gel-filled runway at Versailles. Galliano's most controversial collection - the "Tramps'' haute couture show in 2000 - featured models in tattered gowns inspired by Paris' homeless people. The ultimate street fashion drew howls of protests; pickets scuffled with police in front of Dior headquarters. Although Galliano occasionally steps beyond the line of good taste, he has a commercial touch. He scored with the Saddle bag, a playful handbag in the shape of a saddle with a dangling stirrup. Seven years ago, it spawned a series of "it'' bags. This year has perhaps been Galliano's most triumphant. He opened with a geisha-themed haute couture collection that won raves for its elegance.

Then came last July's blow-out 60th anniversary celebration at Versailles, with supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Giselle Bündchen in a haute couture show inspired by 500 years of art history. Galliano's glamorous fall ready-to-wear collection, featured here, is his homage to the Dior legacy. It's filled with the trademark garden colors that Christian Dior loved. The homage to the Dior New Look occurs in full skirts, cinched waists and elegant draping. Even the Samourai handbag is a nod to early Dior. Yet Galliano's sophisticated, fresh touches have catapulted Dior into the 21st century. "You can still conquer a man's world looking glamorous, and most likely you'll bring your rivals to his knees with sophisticated styling,'' Galliano said. "It's an ugly world sometimes, so bring back the glamour, I say! Attention to detail, luxury and loving yourself are the season's key ingredients.''

Question: On the death of Christian Dior in 1957, who succeeded him as head of the House of Dior?
Answer: (Yves) ST. LAURENT