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A brief look at Christian Dior
Written by FashionBrain
Tags: Christian Dior | haute couture | profile
Christian Dior credited his brilliant-but-short career to a roll of the dice. "I would be ungrateful, and certainly incorrect, if I didn't write, in all capitals, the word 'LUCK' at the beginning of the adventure that became my career," Dior penned as the first line of his autobiography, "Christian Dior et Moi."
Born just outside Paris in 1905, Dior enjoyed a normal, happy childhood that sauntered between Paris and vacations on the Normandy coast. The only early sign of Dior's imminent fashion genius was his propensity to create stunning costumes and disguises during the annual carnival celebrations hosted by his home town of Granville.
In 1931, at the age of 26, Dior's world crumbled at his feet. All in the stretch of a few months, his mother succumbed to cancer, his father's company went bankrupt, and Dior himself contracted tuberculosis and was forced to abandon his art gallery.
Living off the hospitality of others, Dior's obvious design talents were encouraged by a friend who then took on the task of soliciting Dior's work to acquaintances in the fashion world. In 1938 Dior took his first real leap toward fashion stardom when he was hired as a designer at a fashion house run by Robert Piquet. Called briefly into service during World War II, Dior would return to Paris in 1941 only to find his post with Piquet filled by someone else.
After several fruitful years working with Pierre Balmain at Lucien Lelong, Dior's big break came in 1946 when he met Marcel Boussac. Boussac offered Dior the chance to direct the resurgence of a has- been fashion house called Philippe and Gaston. Intrigued by the offer, but also an adept businessman, Dior proposed the creation of his own fashion house. With Boussac's financial assistance, Dior opened the doors to the house that would become an institution on December 16, 1946.
Dior's success was sealed with the very first line that bore his name in 1947. Dubbed the "New Look," Dior delivered women's fashion from the rigid parameters of war and glorified the beauty of the human form. "We are leaving a period of war, of uniforms and of boxed soldier-women," Dior said. Dior's creations, which molded themselves to the female form, played with the length and girth of skirts and promoted the bustline, were a welcome change in a war-torn world starved for sensuality.
Born in Gibraltar to an English father and Spanish mother, the restless Galliano quit school at 16 to learn fabric design at East London College. In 1984, he graduated from St. Martin's School of Art with a triumphant collection of eight French Revolution garments. Galliano's first collection, entitled "Afghanistan Repudiates Western Ideal," cemented his reputation as a hugely talented eccentric. In it are the Mohican motifs that resurfaced in his collection for Givenchy shown in March of last year.
Galliano's rumor-shrouded switch to Christian Dior after only a year with Givenchy is the stuff that media hype is made of. With his Rhett Butler moustache, motorcycle boots and wild-man dreadlocks, Galliano is the house of Dior's most flamboyant successor yet. But will we recognize Dior? Stay tuned.
Christian Dior: 30 avenue Montaigne, 75008, Paris, Tel: +33 1 40 73 54 44, Fax: +33 1 47 20 00 60, www.dior.com
