Christian Dior

A profile of the renowned fashion brand Christian Dior. 

Having left the French Army in 1942, 36-year-old Christian Dior entered the fashion house of Lelong where along with Pierre Balmain, he became a principal designer. During the course of World War Two, Dior dressed the spouses of the Nazi officers and French allies. In October 1946, he established his own fashion house. His primary collection was quickly nicknamed the New Look by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar because Dior's creations were more curvaceous than the conservative shapes of the then wartime styles, inspired by the rations on drapery.
Dior passed away unexpectedly of a coronary in 1957 at the age of 52, and creative control of the label swiftly passed into the hands of his young charge, 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent, who helped to fortify its place in the history books. Saint Laurent was called up for national service in 1960, and fellow countryman Marc Bohan took over and remained in the driving seat until Gianfranco Ferre was appointed to lead the label in 1989. In 1997, British designer John Galliano was chosen as the creative director, a collaboration which has proved highly prosperous and profitable.

What is all the excitement about?

The decade that Christian Dior was at the wheel of the label became known as the peak age of fashion design because he set a new benchmark for high fashion that has almost certainly never been exceeded. A maestro at forming shapes and lines, Dior exhibited corsets and underskirts that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very shapely "ballerina" figure. To begin with, women remonstrated because his designs concealed their legs, which they had not been used to as a result of the wartime restrictions on fabric. It wasn't long before women the world over began demanding them. At present under Galliano, Dior has become famed with fantastic magnetism for the stylish yet daring woman.