Dior autobiography. Christian Dior: photo, creative path in the world of fashion, biography and personal life
Christian Dior did not become a great couturier right away. At first, he went through a difficult path from a simple manager to a real artist, experienced several personal upheavals, and only then discovered own house fashion, which is known throughout the world today.
How did Dior live as a child?
It’s difficult to call Christian’s family poor. The boy was born second in the family. All the children of the Dior family spent early childhood with a “golden spoon in his mouth.”
Christian's birth occurred on January 21, 1905. He was born in French Normandy. In total, the Dior family had five children. Father large family from year to year he became rich from the resale of fertilizers.
Christian's mother could afford not to work anywhere officially; she was engaged in the upbringing and initial education of her children.
Six years after Christian's appearance, his family moved with him to Paris. There, the head of the family bought several apartments and houses, thus investing the money received in business.
After completing his studies with tutors, Christian, at the insistence of his father, enrolled in the Institute political studies, but after studying for a year, he dropped out.
Cafes, restaurants, theaters, exhibitions and cinema - these were the areas where Dior’s true interests were then.
In 1928, a young man decides to study painting. Then the thought of his own gallery creeps into his head. Christian's father refused to help him in this matter. Young Dior does not despair, he continues to intensively search for a partner, and finds him. Jean Bonjac agrees to play the role of sponsor of the project.
Adult life and the path to fame
The gallery of the two young partners began to generate good profits, because such authors as Picasso, Matisse and Derain exhibited there.
It would seem that everything was going just fine, but the 30s became a real test for Christian. The future fashion designer received his first blow when he learned that his brother was in a psychiatric hospital. The second blow was the death of his mother from cancer.
Christian's father was never able to recover from grief, started drinking and almost went broke. During this difficult period, Dior Jr. decided to go to Leningrad in order to somehow forget himself and not think about the troubles that befell his family.
When he returned to Paris, he decided to say goodbye to the gallery. He then set off again for the Spanish archipelago. There Christian again became interested in drawing and weaving. He even came up with quite a few sketches for carpets, but could not find sponsors to start a new business.
After returning home for the second time, Dior tried to work in an office and in a bank, but was unable to get a stable position anywhere..
Finding himself in dire financial straits, Christian sells several paintings from his collection, and his family sells off most of their property and moves to the provinces of France.
The young wanderer did not follow his family, but decided to stay in Paris. He settled with a good friend Jean Ozenn. The newly made friend was already not last person in the world of fashion. It was he who opened the door to the universe of fashionable designer clothing for Dior.
At that time, Christian again began to draw sketches of hats and dresses. His drawings were a great success. He managed to work with many famous couturiers, and finally got ready to open his own fashion house.
In 1946, Dior opened the first establishment where his name was on the sign. A year later, he presented a collection called “New Look” to the world public.
All critics, except American ones, liked the collection. Only they subsided when the whole world accepted Dior as a new trendsetter.
Christian's very first collection was created for women. Dior decided to oppose the ubiquitous ruffles loose fit and convenience. After the successful launch of the fashion line, he presented two collections a year to the public. Later he opened a perfume laboratory, as well as a shoe factory.
From simple but elegant clothes, the couturier moved on to working on costumes for cinema and theaters. Thanks to him, many films of that time were imbued with a special atmosphere of luxury and sophistication.
Personal life of Christian Dior
Like many creative figures, Christian Dior could not get enough of ordinary love. Maybe that's why all his lovers were men. Dior was gay and did not hide his gay orientation.
First strong love The fashion designer became his best man, Perrotino. A few years later, the couple broke up for unknown reasons.
For a long time in adulthood, Christian could not find his love. This continued until he met an African who worked as a model. Dior's chosen one was Jacques Benita.
The happy time for lovers did not last long. In 1957, at the peak of fame and happiness, Christian Dior passed away. He died due to heart problems at a resort in Tuscany.
The death of the fashion maestro occurred on October 24. Dior left no direct heirs and was never married, but his life's work continues to live on today. Many films have been made about Christian Dior, and his brand is still considered one of the best and most luxurious.
Christian Dior
A new look at a woman
In 1947, after the end of the most destructive war in history, women really wanted to remember that they could not only dig trenches, drive trucks, shoot sniper rifles and pull the wounded from the battlefield. They wanted to feel elegant, beautiful and desirable again, to find new look. And in France there was a plump, bald and no longer very young man with a shy smile who gave them this appearance. Just ten years later he died, but his name went down in history forever - as the name of the creator of the New Look style and the man who was the first to transform fashion house into a gigantic international empire of beauty and luxury.
Christian Dior, born on January 21, 1905, spent his childhood in the small town of Granville in Normandy, right next to the English Channel - his gray-pink parental house stood right on the seashore. Dior always remembered his childhood years with warmth, as a happy and carefree time, and the color scheme of his father’s house much later became a signature feature of his fashion collections. Christian's parents, Maurice and Madeleine, were very wealthy bourgeois - his father owned a fertilizer factory. A curious irony of fate: my father’s enterprise irritated local residents unpleasant odors, the son’s enterprise, half a century later, charmed women all over the world with its exquisite fragrances Miss Dior, Diorama And Diorissimo.
Christian grew up as a dreamy, soft and inquisitive child. He, the only one of five children in the family, managed to find the key to the heart of his strict mother, who believed that manifestations of love and tenderness towards her own offspring were inappropriate and would only spoil them. She always treated Christian warmer than the others, most likely because it was he who was sincerely interested in the main business of her life - gardening and growing flowers. His love for flowers remained with him throughout his life; He especially loved lilies of the valley and often wore them in his buttonhole. And it is not surprising that, thinking about his first collection - the one that changed the world - he wanted the woman to look like a flower: “A delicately convex line of the shoulders; rounded chest line; a waist as flexible as a stem... and wide lines of hips, diverging downwards like the cup of a flower.”
In 1911, the Dior family moved to Paris, but continued to spend the entire summer in their native Granville. Grandmother lived with them for a long time maternal line, who instilled in little Christian an interest in everything supernatural, since she herself firmly believed in astrology and fortune telling. At the age of thirteen, Christian, who, disguised as a gypsy, was selling amulets at a local fair, was first told by an old fortune teller about the future: “You will experience poverty, but women will bring you good luck. You will earn a lot of money from them and will travel often.” This prediction later came true completely, and Christian remained a very superstitious person throughout his life, and in his later years he literally could not take a step without a personal fortuneteller, who told him the successful days for fashion shows, signing contracts and replacing florists.
In addition to flowers, Christian had another passion as a child - the carnivals regularly held in Granville. He loved to design carnival costumes for himself and his siblings, and then sew them together with the family seamstress. Christian's sister Jacqueline once amazed local society with the Neptune costume invented by her brother; with a bodice made of shells, he did not think then that creating clothes would become his profession: in his youth he became interested in art and dreamed of entering the Academy of Arts to study as an architect. Much to his disappointment, his parents were categorically against it. They wanted their son to have a more respectable and thorough profession, and as a result Christian entered the School political sciences.
However, Christian was least interested in political science. Gay Paree The twenties were a place of endless temptations and entertainment. Bohemian parties, theaters, music and ballet, art galleries - this is what Christian devoted himself to completely during his student years. He met many artists, poets and musicians, and did not miss a single performance of Jean Cocteau, from whom he was in admiration. It is not surprising that after graduating from the School, he decided not to pursue a career as a diplomat, but to open an art gallery. The parents reluctantly agreed to finance the enterprise, but on the condition that their name would not appear on the gallery’s sign. Thus, in 1928, the Gallery of Jean Bonjac, a friend of Dior, with whom he started this enterprise, opened in Paris. The gallery enjoyed very steady success; the partners exhibited works by contemporary artists: Dali, Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Léger and many others.
But the success did not last long. A financial crisis erupted throughout the world, and a chain of tragedies occurred in the Dior family. Dior himself, who believed in signs of fate and bad omens, connected them with a mirror that was broken by a gust of wind in their Granville house. younger brother Bernard, always distinguished by odd behavior, found himself in madhouse, my mother died of blood poisoning, my father went completely bankrupt. Christian was very upset by the misfortunes that befell his family and felt that he needed a sharp change in the situation if he did not want, like his brother, to go crazy. This change was a trip to Soviet Union with a group of young architects who went there to breathe the romance of the revolution and adopt best practices. However, Christian suffered severe disappointment; he was unable to reach the sources of inspiration that fed his beloved Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Stravinsky and Malevich: everything he saw in Soviet Russia the early thirties - these are “peeling facades, empty storefronts, monstrous poverty.”
Returning to Paris, Christian learns that his gallery with Bonjean has gone bankrupt. For some time he lives in poverty, surviving on money from selling paintings and helping his friend Pierre Coll manage his gallery, where business was also not going well. In 1934, Christian suffered another blow, this time personal: he fell ill with tuberculosis. It was here, probably for the first time in his life, that he truly felt the impact of his peaceful and friendly character: the friends he made in the roaring twenties loved him so much that they collected the necessary amount for treatment and recovery in a clinic on Balearic Islands. A year later, Christian finds himself back in France - healthy, but penniless. And here again friends come to the rescue: the artist Jean Ozenn, who made sketches for fashion houses, introduces him to the world of couturiers and their clients. Christian makes the first sketches - hats, and then outfits - they are taken into production and published in Le Figaro.
In 1937, fashion designer Robert Piguet drew the attention of him: first he ordered him to create several models for the collection, and then he took him on. permanent job. Dior later recalled that Piguet taught him that elegance is simplicity itself. Piguet's work was interrupted by the outbreak of war - Dior was drafted into the army. He did not have to take part in hostilities - he served in construction battalion, - and after the surrender of France he moved to unoccupied Provence, where his father and sister lived, and farmed there until 1941 - he had to somehow feed himself.
Piguet had hired another person by that time, but Christian was lucky - another couturier, Lucien Lelong, became interested in his candidacy. As a result, until the end of the war, Dior was busy dressing the wives of Nazi officers and local collaborators. He himself was quite apolitical, but in 1944, when he younger sister Katrin ended up in a concentration camp for participating in the Resistance movement, he raised everyone possible, including the Swedish consul, in attempts to free her. Another case is also typical, from a more late period, when Dior became famous: he had a very strong quarrel with his formerly beloved niece Françoise, the daughter of his older brother Raymond, after she began to publicly declare that Dior's manager was participating in a Jewish conspiracy to bring him to the grave. As a result, Dior even disinherited Françoise.
Soon after the end of the war, Dior made a fateful acquaintance with one of the richest men in France, the “cotton baron” Marcel Boussac. Boussac became interested in Dior's ideas about a new post-war graceful look for women and decided that he was ready to invest in the designer establishing his own fashion house. As a result, a fashion house Christian Dior opened at the end of 1946. When Christian saw workers nailing a sign with his name to a mansion on Avenue Montagne, he thought: “If my mother were alive, I would never dare to do this.” Just a few months after the opening, in February 1947, Dior presented his famous collection Corolle, which excited the whole world. Editor-in-chief of the magazine Harper's Bazaar Carmel Snow named the collection New Look (« new look", "new look"), and it was under this name that it became known. Snow also said that Dior saved Paris - just as Paris was saved at the Battle of the Marne. Indeed, it was thanks to Dior that Paris once again became the capital of world fashion.
New Look represented, strictly speaking, not a revolution in the world of fashion, but a return to the traditions of elegance and grace. The woman in the Dior suit really looked like a flower, and also like an hourglass: with a cinched waist, an accentuated bust and a full skirt that reached to her calves or ankles. “Women felt with their sure instinct that I wanted to make them not only more beautiful, but also happier,” Dior later recalled. Judging by the tremendous success New Look, apparently, this really was the case.
Success had to be maintained - and Dior, without stopping there, comes up with new collections every six months, changing not only the length of the skirt, but even the entire silhouette as a whole. He also demonstrates his commercial talents combined with the ability to understand people well and work with them. He surrounds himself with a powerful support group - which was worth only the three whale ladies on whom the Dior fashion house rested and whom Christian called only “my dears”: Raymonde Zenaker, studio manager, Marguerite Carré, head of the workshops, and Mitza Brisard, chief stylist and specialist in hats and accessories. And in 1948, he hired manager Jacques Rouet, who became the business genius of the house Christian Dior. In particular, it was he who came up with the idea of licensing, which everyone now uses fashion houses: when an American company offered to buy the rights to produce stockings Dior, Ruhe instead agreed to pay a percentage of sales. Very soon, accessories, gloves, ties, and perfumes were licensed in the same way. The house of Christian Dior opened ready-to-wear and shoe stores, not only in France and America, but also in many other countries. Dior made suits for such famous women like Marlene Dietrich and Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Margot Fonteyn; dressed the Duchess of Windsor and Princess Margaret. In a 1949 Gallup poll, Dior was named one of the five most famous people in the world.
Dior did not suffer from star fever; he was too modest for that. He gave interviews, but did not like noisy social events. He left the cocktail parties for journalists after the show of each new collection to his commercial director, childhood friend Suzanne Luleng, and most often did not appear at them. His favorite place was an outdoor refuge where he could relax and walk with his dog, an abandoned mill in Normandy, not far from his native Granville. However, despite the fact that he did not like being in the center of public attention, he also did not like loneliness - he was always surrounded by close friends. The same Suzanne Luleng said that he amazingly combined two properties - talent and devotion to friends. Almost all the people with whom he became close friends in early youth, maintained a sincere relationship with him all my life. He was loved not only by his friends, but also by his subordinates. Everyone remembered how polite and friendly he was - he even gave up his seat in the elevator to trainees with a bow. One former window dresser at a Dior boutique recalled his boss: “The boutiques had an amazing atmosphere thanks to Dior’s extraordinary gift for communicating with people. He completely shaped my life. He could be called a real gentleman - in the sense that was put into this word in the 17th century.”
Dior also had one more quality uncharacteristic for the world of high fashion - a complete absence of envy. He not only found young talents, but also helped them to open up and make careers. For example, Frederic Castet, who came to work for Dior in 1953, was surprised when his boss soon led him to the door where there was a sign with his name: he began to manage a separate studio. There is a well-known story with the young Yves Saint Laurent, whom Dior hired at the age of nineteen and soon announced as his successor. The incident that happened with Pierre Cardin is also typical. While Dior was in America in 1948, his fashion house in France was under investigation into industrial espionage.
Young Pierre Cardin, who worked for Dior, was also summoned for questioning as a suspect. He was very offended and quit. From afar, Dior was unable to intervene and persuade Cardin to stay, but upon returning to France, the first thing he did was go to the theater costume production studio Cardin had just opened to order himself an outfit of the King of the Monsters for a masquerade ball. Cardin was so touched that he even burst into tears.
Dior's family and thoughtfulness in the absence of his own offspring turned to his widow best friend Pierre Colle to Carmen and her three daughters. Dior took Carmen to work as a boutique director, and his daughters in every sense words replaced his father: gave them dolls in outfits New Look, I portrayed Père Noël (French Father Christmas) at Christmas, checked my lessons, and planned holiday trips. One of the goddaughters, Marie-Pierre Coll, was also present at last minutes his life: Dior took her with him when he went to rest and improve his health on the waters in Italy.
The main passion in Dior's life, besides fashion, was delicious food. Fifteen years after his death, a book of his favorite recipes, “My Homegrown Kitchen,” was published, in which champagne was indicated as the main additive in the dishes. Dom P?rignon. Anxious about his status in the world of high fashion, he periodically thought that in case of failure he could make a career in cooking. "We could produce ham Dior or maybe roast beef Dior? – he shared his plans with Jacques Rouet. His friend Alexander Lieberman recalled one dinner at Dior's in the summer of 1956: he and his wife Tatyana, five courses one after another. “You should have seen how he added more to himself!”
However, food, although it was one of the main joys in his life, was also a source of constant frustration, because its excessive consumption was not beneficial either for Dior’s ailing heart, who suffered two heart attacks at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, or for his figure . In a letter to a friend, Dior once signed with sad self-irony: “Your old couturier, who the more decrepit he becomes, the fatter he gets.” In the mid-fifties, doctors advised Dior, who was under stress from the enormous amount of work, to rest more often and allocate a room next to the office for this purpose. But this room became for Dior a place where he secretly ate chocolate. Raymonda Zenaker periodically caught him doing this and scolded him, which made Christian feel guilty. The feeling of guilt exacerbated the hunger, and the circle closed.
But one day Dior decided to step on the throat of his love for food - for the sake of another love. It must be said that in his personal life he was always very secretive and never advertised his connections with men. It is only known that most of his novels ended in severe disappointment: he was offered to “remain friends.” Everything turned out completely differently with the young Algerian singer Jacques Benita, whom Dior met in 1956 (the couturier himself was fifty-one at that moment, Jacques was twenty-five). Jacques, having found a father in Dior, really became very attached to him - and, it seems, sincerely fell in love with him. Christian lost his head so much that he even began to appear in public with Jacques, something he had never allowed himself to do before. Jacques has always maintained that he loves Dior for who he is, and that he absolutely does not need to change anything in his appearance. But Dior still decided to lose weight - and for this purpose he went to the waters of Italy in October 1957, to the town of Montecatini, which since the 14th century was considered one of the most healing in Europe: Rossini, Verdi, Clark Gable and Grace Kelly improved their health there. Even the warning from his personal soothsayer that the trip was extremely unfavorable for him did not stop the loving Dior.
Ten days after arriving in Montecatini, on October 23, Dior died of another heart attack. One version says that this happened after he choked on a fish bone, another that he suffered a heart attack while playing cards. Much later, socialite Alexis von Rosenberg wrote in his memoirs that immediately after Dior’s death there was another version: they say, the couturier’s heart could not stand it after sex with two energetic young men. However, there is no evidence for this version - rather, it may stem from rumors circulating during Dior’s lifetime about his homosexuality.
Thousands of people gathered in Paris to farewell Dior. They brought so many flowers that the mayor's office of the capital allowed the House of Dior to display them at the Place de l'Etoile - as a result, the Arc de Triomphe was simply buried in multi-colored petals. The couturier himself would probably have liked this, because he loved flowers almost as much as food and fashion.
Now, more than half a century after the death of Christian Dior, his fashion house is thriving under the leadership of John Galliano. The name of the great couturier still remains a sign of quality and luxury. No wonder Jean Cocteau deciphered his friend’s surname as a combination of words Di– from Dieu(“God”) and Or("gold").
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Christian Dior is a great French couturier, whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of world fashion, the founder of the fashion house of the same name, one of the top 5 luxury brands in the world of fashion and beauty Christian Dior. The name Dior has become synonymous with luxury, grace and impeccable taste, and quotes from the great master about female beauty and what fashion and style are have long become popular.
Christian Dior was one of five children born into the family of a successful chemical fertilizer merchant. Under the influence of his family, Christian successfully graduated from the School of Political Science after graduating from school, but did not work in his specialty - an artist at heart, Dior gravitated toward art. Christian, together with his friend Jean Beaujean, opened an art gallery where works of impressionists and postmodernists were exhibited. However, the financial crisis of 1929 made its own adjustments to the fate of the future couturier: due to lack of funding, the gallery had to be closed. Dior found a way to support himself and at the same time show his talent: he began to draw and sell sketches to Parisian fashion houses, and also illustrate for the magazine Le Figaro. Even then he realized that fashion was his calling.
The talent of the young artist did not go unnoticed: Marcel Boussac, who believed in the great future of the designer, being a textile magnate, provided him with financing for the construction of a fashion house and the purchase necessary equipment and fabrics. The very first collection of the Christian Dior workshop, released in 1947, had the effect of a bomb exploding: dresses with chic crinolines and wasp waists went against the policy of post-war economy of material and unified silhouettes.
The couturier’s ideas are best explained by his quotes: “I wanted women to become beautiful again” and “The style that everyone called new is just my vision of fashion as it should be. However, my desire coincided with the desire of the public, and fashion became its slogan.” Thanks to the American journalist Carmel Snow, the revolutionary style of Christian Dior acquired the name new look. Dresses, jackets, and ankle-length skirts heralded the era of the renaissance of true feminine attractiveness.
Feminine silhouettes
New look: woman's rebirth
The Christian Dior fashion house became the birthplace of new styles that most advantageously outline the female figure.
The fashion for dresses, skirts and jackets created by the great couturier is still relevant today.
New look silhouettes
Dresses
The new look silhouette is sloping shoulders without shoulder pads, a narrow bodice, an accentuated waist and a wide, flared skirt, diverging from the hips in soft folds. It was thanks to dresses of this cut that Christian Dior gained worldwide love and popularity, because in them any woman looks graceful and attractive. The master’s love for dresses is evidenced by his quotes: “Dresses are my whole life” and “I am obsessed with them, they take me through all the circles of hell and heaven.”
Decoration and decoration of a fashion house
The emergence of the new look trend
Pencil Skirt
It has also become a true classic and an integral attribute, and was also invented by Christian Dior. Tight-fitting, knee-length, this skirt looks great with tops and blouses, as well as jackets and jumpers.
Jacket with peplum
The master called the model he created a “bar jacket.” It was distinguished by a fitted cut, a narrow bodice and a short peplum that undulated from the waist. Christian Dior suggested wearing a bar jacket with a pencil skirt or dress. - straight silhouette are relevant from the suggestion of the French couturier.
Bar jackets with peplum
Full skirt
The skirts invented by the designer with a narrow bodice had a length either just below the knees or to the floor. Some models required 40 meters of fabric - the creations, flowing in exciting folds, weighed several kilograms.
Christian Dior has long captured the minds of fashionistas around the world. Each designer collection was awaited with special impatience and was accepted almost unconditionally. However, it could not do without critics, Dior’s attitude towards whom can be understood from the quote: “It’s better to be criticized on the front page than to devote two lines of praise on the last page.”
Collection details
During his life, Dior received many awards, including the Order of the Legion of Honor. However, fashion is not the only area in which the designer’s talent extended: he created perfumes, accessories and glasses, designed costumes for movie actors, and also looked for and helped develop young talented designers: with his blessing, Pierre Cardin, Frederic Castet, Jean Louis Scherrer and other couturiers. The designer was famous for his ability to choose words accurately; almost everyone knows his quotes: “Fashion lives by its own laws, it is not subject to all other laws.”
Handmade decoration of clothing items
The master's legacy - Christian Dior fashion house
Even more than half a century after the death of the couturier, those who continue his legacy carefully honor traditions and preserve style: the house of Christian Dior can be called one of the most conservative (in in a good way) from fashion houses in France.
Femininity remains a priority for modern art directors of the house - at Dior haute-couture shows you will not see androgynous models or faceless outfits.
Among the art directors of the fashion house are Yves Saint Laurent, Gianfranco Ferré, as well as John Galliano and Raf Simons.
From the Dior 2016 show
Perfume
Today, Christian Dior is not only a high fashion atelier, but also a perfume brand, occupying 4th place in the world sales lists. Christian Dior himself highly appreciated the importance of perfume; here is part of his famous quote: “Perfume is the final, final touch of the image.” The most popular fragrances of the house are J`adore and Miss Dior, whose advertising campaigns featured such stars as Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman (in the next photo).
Dresses for celebrities
Christian Dior dresses regularly appear on the red carpet of various film festivals - actresses and socialites They are valued for their unsurpassed luxury and emphasized femininity. The next photo shows the favorite of the Dior house, Charlize Theron, in a black dress with a train.
Celebrities in Dior dresses
Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) is known not only for her spectacular appearances: dresses from the house of Dior with enviable regularity emphasize the unusual beauty of the actress.
At the Oscars, Jennifer wore a dress with a classic silhouette in a soft pearl shade (in the next photo):
Dior dresses on the carpet
Classic dresses with a narrow bodice and full, floor-length skirt are chosen by style icons such as Sarah Jessica Parker (pictured) and Diane Kruger.
Dior choice of Sarah Jessica Parker
Diane Kruger in Dior dresses
Famous glasses models
In addition to clothing lines, the Christian Dior house is also known for its accessories: bags and sunglasses developed by its designers are becoming must-haves for fashionistas all over the world.
So Real glasses (pictured) are incredibly popular this season. Rihanna, who recently became the face of the brand, was one of the first to try on glasses. The trend was picked up by fashion bloggers - photos of girls wearing So real glasses appear on the Internet every now and then.
The Technologic model (pictured) is no less popular - modern, dynamic and lightweight glasses that emphasize the style of the owner. Having a futuristic frame and made in laconic colors, Technologic glasses have become the hit of the season - the fashion for them has swept the whole world.
Pilot and Millenium glasses have become true classics of the Christian Dior house - smooth shapes and bright colors optics are relevant at any time of the year.
Pilot and Millennium
The fashion and style created by the great designer have been setting the tone for almost a century. Modern fashion is unthinkable without the legacy of Christian Dior - the artist who allowed a woman to become a woman again and remain so forever, and quotes from the designer may well become quick guide in style: “Elegance is a symbiosis of simplicity, naturalness, individuality and attention to yourself and your clothes.”
CHRISTIAN DIOR
February 12, 1947 Christian Dior ( Christian Dior) created a sensation with the show of the “Corolle” collection. Correspondent for Harper's bazaar magazine (first American magazine about fashion), Carmel Snow, called this collection “New Look” (English: “new look”
), she also said: “Dior saved Paris just as Paris was saved at the Battle of the Marne.” Everyone was talking about a revolution in fashion, but this was just a return to normalcy and good taste. Dior brought the romantic and feminine look back into fashion. He wanted to revive the tradition of great luxury in French fashion. And this was the secret of his success. Dior once said “Europe is tired of falling bombs. Now she wants to light fireworks.”
By favoring long skirts, Dior defied post-war trends. The success of Dior's first collection instantly caused a strong reaction not only in France, but also in the United States, where fashion designers had to redo the newly completed collections. He was called reckless and defiant. In devastated France, where fabrics were in short supply, he lengthened the skirts.
The great master of his time, Balenciaga, admitted that he found Dior's treatment of fabric terrible. Layered linings of teak, starched linen, tulle - this contradicted Balenciaga's main credo: "let the fabric speak for itself." But the harshest criticism came from Chanel: “Dior? He doesn't dress women. He stuffs them.”
Nevertheless, despite the criticism, Dior's dresses became incredibly popular, with women vying for the right to purchase them.
In 1949, Christian Dior owned 75% of all French fashion exports. In the same year, according to a survey by the French Institute sociological research Gallup, Dior was named among the five most famous people in the world.
Dior knew the market very well. He entered completely new type presentations, which had nothing in common with the sedate, calm pre-war fashion shows. At Dior, the models performed theatrically, floating majestically past the audience. The models replaced each other so quickly that it was breathtaking, while fantasy names were heard: “Number one: Verdi! Number two: Pergolesi! Number three: Wagner! This performance could last up to two hours, and it never got boring.
Every six months, Dior proposed a new direction. He was the first couturier who could radically change the length of the skirt and even the entire silhouette from one collection to the next. He himself tried to make fashion go out of fashion as quickly as possible, he himself took care of sensations in the press, and promoted trade turnover.
Christian Dior was born on January 21, 1905 in Granville in Normandy. He was the fifth child in the family of fertilizer factory owner Maurice Dior. From childhood, Christian was interested in fashion and retained deep affection and admiration for his elegant mother. Christian dreamed of becoming an artist, but his father was against it, and he began to study politics, supposedly to become a diplomat. At the same time, his father financed his small gallery so that his son could satisfy his penchant for contemporary art. But in the early 30s, due to a stock market crash and unprofitable investments, Mr. Dior lost all his fortune, and Christian had to earn his own living. He was forced to abandon the gallery and worked for a short time as a freelance illustrator until he received a permanent position as an artist in a fashion magazine with Robert Piguet.
In 1939, Dior had to go to war, but a year later he was demobilized. He went to his father and sister in Southern France and began working as a farmer.
In 1941, Dior returned to Paris, where he was lucky enough to get a job as a designer for Lucien Lelong. Over the course of several years, Christian Dior updated Lelong's silhouette so radically that one day an American journalist asked who this talented young man was behind the scenes. This gave Dior the courage to start independent work. He managed to arouse interest in his projects from the incredibly wealthy textile tycoon Marcel Boussac. The manufacturer liked the idea of a lush silhouette that required a huge amount of fabric - so the House of Dior was opened on Avenue Montaigne. There he remains to this day.
Some believe that Dior's mother, who had long since died, influenced his fashion great influence. Rushing her skirts, she came to kiss the boy good night before going to the ball, and the memory of this majestic beauty did not leave Dior all his life. Dior was a mama's boy - gentle, soft, timid, dreamy. Everyone who worked with him described him as a modest and polite person. Even with the trainees, he bowed and made way for them to enter the elevator. He treated each of his several hundred employees with attention: over the course of a month, he selected suitable Christmas gifts for everyone. Dior was a gourmet and hated being alone. He was always surrounded by a small group of close friends. His weakness was superstition. He didn't accept either single solution, without consulting his fortune teller Madame Delahaye. She once predicted to him that he would become famous thanks to women. It was on her advice that Dior accepted Boussac's offer and founded a fashion house with him.
Dior's personality was so gentle, soft, so obviously subject to the fears of an artist, that these features easily hid the talent of a businessman. Already on his first visit to America, where he arrived in 1947 at the invitation of the Texas businessman Neiman Marcus to receive an Oscar in the field of design, Dior realized that this market was fraught with opportunities that no one suspected. “We sell ideas,” he said, meaning that it would be permissible to freely copy masterpieces, but in such a way that the author received a certain amount from all sales. In other words, Dior invented royalties. Since 1949, the replication of each of his ideas has yielded interest. Thus, the production of accessories and perfumes became very profitable.
“Perfume is an unsurpassed shade of female individuality, the final touch of the image,” Dior liked to repeat. He released his first fragrance in 1947, immediately after his debut show, which brought him resounding success. These were “Miss Dior”, their delicate scent with the aroma of lilies of the valley - the favorite flowers of Christian Dior's mother - matched the new silhouette, light and airy. Following “Miss Dior” came “Diorama” and “Diorissimo”. All this showed how right Jean Cocteau was, who even earlier deciphered the name of his friend Dior as a combination of two words Di- from Dieu(“God”) and Or("gold").
The desire for perfection torments every great couturier - millimeters could finally decide what it is: triumph or fall, but Dior took on an additional burden - he opened branches abroad. He invented special models for his salons in London, New York and Caracas, focused on the needs and proportions of the figure of local customers. Simply put, Dior had to develop about 1,000 models a year. Such a production plan was especially burdensome for a designer like Dior, since it was a matter of honor to create an original collection for each salon. Dior's health deteriorated - partly due to hypertrophied suspiciousness. In the mid-50s he had obvious symptoms of stress.
The army of servants who took care of his various houses had to wear fur slippers to maintain Dior's absolute peace. Sometimes the artist’s nerves were so tense that his soothsayer and his chauffeur Perrotino, Dior’s lover in his distant youth, had to drive around the block several times before the couturier decided to enter the salon on Avenue Montagne. Its manager, Madame Raymond, was sometimes woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from the owner - he was crying like a child.
Outsiders hardly noticed any changes in Dior, except that he was losing more and more weight. Only Perrotino knew Dior's deepest secret: he had already had two heart attacks. And there was another secret - for many years he was unhappy in love. Countless attractive young men refused to offer him anything more than friendship. Eventually, in 1956, his inclination was reciprocated by a handsome young man of North African origin, Jacques Benita. Country conservative, constantly thinking about his reputation, Dior was so in love that he appeared in public with his new friend. For him, Dior wanted to appear especially attractive, so in 1956 he decided to undergo a weight loss course in Montecatini. The soothsayer Delahaye, seeing warning signs in the cards, begged him to change his plans. For the first time in his life, Dior did not listen to her advice. Together with his driver, the head of the fashion salon and the young goddaughter he went to a resort in Italy. On the tenth day of his stay there, on October 23, 1957, in the evening, Dior fell exhausted, barely having time to finish a batch of canasta. At the age of 52, one of the most influential fashion designers of all time died of sudden cardiac arrest.
Christian Dior was born on January 21, 1905 in France in the city of Granville (Normandy) on the English Channel. Christian was the second child in the family. My father was engaged in the trade of chemical fertilizers and made a considerable fortune from this. Therefore, all five children of the family have nothing
didn't need it. Christian's mother was beautiful woman and knew how to spend money on her pleasures and outfits. Little Christian always admired his elegant mother, the memory of her did not leave him all his life. When he was 6 years old, the family moved to Paris.
Everything, it would seem, foreshadowed a calm, measured life. Christian's parents each did their own thing, and Christian was preparing for a diplomatic career, although this did not attract him at all, but his father wished so. He liked art more. He spent a lot of time with his friend Jean Bonjac in museums, studied painting and musical composition. This was the time of Russian ballets. Life in Paris served as a real school for Dior.
But the halcyon time is over. In 1931, his mother died of cancer, and his father went bankrupt and after some time fell ill with tuberculosis. What can he do? begins to sell his drawings (sketches of clothes and hats) to the magazine Le Figaro Illustre. And he was immediately noticed by the then famous fashion designer Robert Piguet.
True, the rise to glory of the great couturier was interrupted by the war. However, in 1941, Christian returned to Paris and began working at the Lucien Lelong fashion house. Some time later, in 1942, Christian created his own perfume line, which would soon become Christian Dior Perfume. His first perfumes were Miss Dior, Diorissimo, Diorama.
Christian Dior has always believed that perfume is a complement to a woman's personality and completes her outfit.
And in 1946, he managed to awaken interest in his new projects from the very wealthy textile magnate Marcel Boussac, and with his support he opened his first fashion house.
Perhaps the memory of his elegant mother, or perhaps the end of the war and the desire to see all women beautifully and elegantly dressed, led to what gave impetus to the "New Direction".
He caught the spirit of the times - after the war, everyone wanted to feel the joy of life. What many thought was a revolution in fashion simply suited the needs of the people of the time.
“New Direction” or New Look – Christian Dior’s first collection symbolized optimism and abundance. It was a "romantic line" that had soft sloping shoulders, a fitted bodice, round hips and thin waist, wide fluffy skirts, which took up to 40 meters of fabric. Christian Dior sensed how women wanted to look and offered them the look they wanted.
His first collection was shown on February 12, 1947, which created a sensation almost throughout the world. American journalist Carmel Snow gave the name of the collection “new look” - “new look”, “new direction”.
Dior became the king of fashion and queens came to him: Farah Diba, Duchess
Windsor, Eva Gardner, Ingrid Bergman, Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Lauren Bacall.
Over 11 years, he developed 22 different silhouettes, the female figure could look like an 8, an H, an A or a Y, but the length of all his images was always between the knee and ankle. And all the women immaculately followed his ideas. Dior invented new silhouettes so that interest in fashion would not wane. Dior set the tone, and everyone else obeyed him.
He created unique outfits and loved to be copied. His “New Direction” is most likely a revival of that wonderful past, where luxurious and elegant outfits are present. And in this his creative genius was realized in to the fullest. Dior believed that fashion cannot be imposed; women accepted his new look with delight because they wanted to look feminine. In the first collection, daytime dresses weighed up to 4 kilograms, and evening dresses – up to 30 kilograms, but Dior’s desire to revive great luxury was too great. He said: “Europe is tired of falling bombs. Now she wants to light fireworks.”
Dior's fashion models demonstrated their outfits theatrically, they quickly replaced each other, the names sounded, and the waves of the magnificent outfits took your breath away. he loved his models, was polite to them and affectionately called them “My girls.” Dior knew the market well, he himself cared about sensations and trade turnover, and had extraordinary business qualities.
Christian Dior was a good diplomat in his field (his father's dream came true). When Dior was in America for the Oscars in the field of design, he declared the free copying of masterpieces, but on the condition that the author received some amount from all sales, that is, Christian Dior invented the royalty. And since 1949, the circulation of each of his ideas gave interest. And from then on, he began selling the right to put his brand name. In this case, license holders had to work either in the style of the master or copy his models.
By nature, Dior was soft, gentle and shy. Everyone who worked with him knew him as dreamy, humble and polite person. He bowed to everyone, even giving way to the trainees to get into the elevator. He treated each of his employees with attention, choosing suitable Christmas gifts for each of them. Dior provided employees with comfort, food and social insurance.
Dior loved to feast on food, hated and was afraid of loneliness. He had many friends, but most often he was surrounded by the company of his closest friends, among whom were Christian Berard, Jean Cocteau, composers Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric, and the head of the salon, Raymond Zeinaker. Dior did not suffer from petty pride; he knew how to admire the creations of his colleagues, especially Vionnet.
Christian Dior was superstitious; always before showing a collection, and in general on all occasions in his life, he consulted his fortuneteller Madame Delahaye.
When he was preparing his new collection, he always locked himself in his office, and the servants walked quietly, and in soft slippers, so as not to disturb him. Usually, each fashion designer in a new collection proposed one or two new basic ideas, and new models and images were created around them, and Christian Dior said this: I only have 12.
Dior opened many branches abroad, and for each of them he invented special models. Salons were located in London, New York and Caracas. All the models that he invented for them met the needs of local customers. Thus, he had to develop about 1000 models per year. Dior's health was failing and he was showing symptoms of stress. But outwardly, to outsiders, he had changed little, except that he was losing more and more weight. Only those closest to him knew that he had already had heart attacks. And there was one more secret - he was deeply unhappy in love...
Not all designers were delighted with Dior's creations. , who always sewed only from expensive fabrics and treated them with reverence, considered Dior’s work with fabrics terrible. And, who was for the complete emancipation of women, especially in clothing, said this: “Dior? He doesn’t dress women, he stuffs them.” And yet, it was the great French couturier who gave the world the image of a graceful and elegant woman.
At the age of 52, on October 24, 1957, after a sudden cardiac arrest, Christian Dior left this world.
There is now a museum in his home in Granville.
Perfumes Christian Dior.
Christian Dior perfumes rank 4th in the world in terms of sales. Both bottles and packaging are made in the corporate style, which was introduced by Christian Dior: gamma gray, pink and white, medallions a la Louis XVI, ribbed matting textured paper, satin ribbons.
In the field of fragrances, the House of Dior has many discoveries - one of the best is, for example, the essence of lily of the valley and vanilla.
In total, there are currently more than 90 Dior fragrances.
The most popular Christian Dior fragrances:
Dior Dolce Vita (for women)
Dior Dune (for women and men)
Dior Poison (for women)
Dior Fahrenheit (for men)
Dior Miss Dior Cherie (for women)
Dior Homme Sport (for men)
Dior Higher (for men)
Dior Homme (for men)
Dior Addict (for women)