In 2000, Galliano’s leadership was extended to Ready to wear, accessories, advertising and communications. The first campaign under his leadership was photographed by Nick Knight and featured two women simulating intercourse. Together with his partner Jacques Rouet, Dior pioneered license agreements in the fashion business. By 1948, he had arranged lucrative licensing deals for fur, stockings, and perfumes, which not only generated revenue but also made him a household name.
The spring 1953 collection, dubbed “Tulip,” featured an abundance of floaty, flowery prints. By his final collections, Dior, feeling the need for a more limber silhouette and lifestyle, was designing chemises, narrow tunics, and sari-like wraps. A fresh-faced and eager Yves Saint Laurent started working with Christian Dior in 1955 when he was just 19 years old. He began at the fashion house as Dior’s assistant, but it didn’t take long for the creative genius behind the label to spot the potential in the young Frenchman.
At the time of his death, Dior’s house was earning more than $20 million annually. Dior was born on January 21, 1905, in Granville, a seaside town in the north of France. He was the second of five children born to Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior, the owner of a highly successful fertilizer manufacturer, and his wife, Isabelle. When he was a boy, Dior’s family moved to Paris, where he would spend his youth. An absolute classic in the world of fine perfumery, J’adore expresses all the sensual intensity and solar energy of a Dior woman.
Seeking to relieve women from wartime frugality and shapeless clothes, Dior devised ways to enhance feminine beauty. His proposition was greeted with rapturous applause and immediately embraced by such disparate women as singer Juliette Greco and stage actress Dominique Blanchard, who had a long skirt made of 80 yards of pleated white faille. Then came a chance encounter with a childhood friend and a director of the house of Philippe & Gaston, a dressmaker owned by Marcel Boussac, the French textile mogul known as the cotton king, who was looking for a designer to infuse new life into the business.
In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the house of Dior comes the first volume in a series devoted to each designer of the couture house. Dior by Christian Dior is the ultimate compendium of the most iconic haute couture designs conceived by Christian Dior. Carefully conserved in the world’s great museums and institutions, these fashion treasures have been photographed and exclusively compiled for this indispensable collection. Well before he embarked on his destiny as a couturier, Christian Dior was fascinated with art.
His design career did not begin until 1935, when he returned to Paris and began selling sketches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrates the 50th anniversary of the house of Dior with an exhibit. At the Met Gala, Lady Diana wears the first Dior dress designed by Galliano. Pierre Bergé recalled that Dior often instructed his chauffeur to continue circling the company’s headquarters in the black Citroën until he mustered the courage to enter. Faced with imperfections, Dior could go into a rage, poking imperfect stitches with a long stick.
A famous gourmet, he would lay out lavish feasts while visitors marveled at the surroundings. Dior asked his interior decorator friends, including Victor Grandpierre and Georges Geffroy, to decorate his homes and boutiques. The business quickly expanded to neighboring buildings, the one at 30 Avenue Montaigne housing what in the early ’50s was the biggest luxury boutique in Paris.
Bohan stayed with Dior for more than a decade, continuing to build the brand and make it even more internationally successful. He launched ready-to-wear and baby clothes, making Dior more accessible than ever. Stores started popping up in more cities like London and Hong Kong, and the Dior brand was catapulted to the top of the fashion world. There is a subtext to this New New Look that goes beyond respect for the house’s esteemed founder.
Galliano’s vision for Dior was a dramatic departure from the creatives who came before him. When he exited the brand in 2011, Raf Simons assumed creative directorship and sought to bring Dior closer to its roots. Simons designs were more understated and feminine, reminiscent of the classic Dior. After Ferre’s tenure, John Galliano took over as creative director, who led Dior into the new millennium, outfitting every star you can imagine — including Princess Diana of Wales. Not only did the princess wear Galliano’s couture, but she was partial to his handbags as well. Though Galliano’s saddle bags, which have become a staple for the Dior brand, became immensely popular, Princess Diana’s go-to was a bag that Galliano later dubbed Lady Dior, with Diana’s blessing.
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