Christian Dior
When Christian Dior launched his couture house, in 1946, he wanted nothing less than to make “an elegant woman more beautiful and a beautiful woman more elegant.” He succeeded, and in doing so the visionary designer altered the landscape of 20th century fashion.
Dior was born in Granville, on the Normandy coast, in 1905. His prosperous haute bourgeois parents wanted him to become a diplomat despite his interest in art and architecture. However, they agreed to bankroll an art gallery, which Dior opened in 1928 in Paris with a friend.
This was the start of Dior’s rise in the city’s creative milieu, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. After seven years as an art dealer, Dior retrained as a fashion illustrator, eventually landing a job as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet, and in 1941, following a year of military service, he joined the house of Lucien Lelong. Just five years later, with the backing of industrialist Marcel Boussac, the ascendant Dior established his own fashion house, at 30 avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Just two years after the end of World War II, the fashion crowd and the moribund haute couture industry were yearning, comme tout Paris, for security and prosperity, desperate to discard the drab, sexless, utilitarian garb imposed by wartime deprivation. They needed to dream anew.
And Dior delivered: He designed a collection for a bright, optimistic future. “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, the prescient American editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, famously proclaiming, “Your dresses have such a new look.” The press ran with the description, christening Dior’s debut Spring/Summer haute couture collection the New Look. “God help those who bought before they saw Dior,” said Snow. “This changes everything.”
Dior’s collection definitively declared that opulence, luxury and femininity were in. His skirts could have 40-meter-circumference hems, and outfits could weigh up to 60 pounds. They were cut and shaped like architecture, on strong foundations that molded women and “freed them from nature,” Dior said. Rather than rationing, his ladies wanted reams of fabric and 19-inch waists enforced by wire corsets, and the fashion world concurred. The debut got a standing ovation.
In the subsequent decade, Paris ruled as the undisputed fashion capital of the world, and Christian Dior reigned as its king. With the luxuriously full skirts of his New Look, suits and his drop-dead gorgeous evening dresses and ball gowns worthy of any princess, Dior gave women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of war.
On 1stDibs, find an exquisite range of vintage Christian Dior clothing, jewelry, handbags and other items.
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1970s Christian Dior
Early 2000s Christian Dior
Early 2000s Christian Dior
1990s Christian Dior
1970s Christian Dior
Early 2000s Christian Dior
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Christian Dior fashion for sale on 1stDibs
- Are Dior bags handmade?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022Yes, Dior bags are handmade at the brand's ateliers. The brand's artisans complete all of the assembly and stitching by hand, making the construction of each bag a painstaking and time-consuming process. For example, a Dior Caro handbag’s signature quilted effect requires roughly 18,000 stitches. You’ll find a large selection of Dior bags on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022No, Dior bags don't all have serial numbers. In fact, the brand uses date codes in place of them. The date code begins with a two-digit number that represents the manufacturing year. A two-letter code specifying which factory produced the bag comes next. At the end of the date code is a four-number sequence. The first and third numbers correspond to the month of production, and the second and fourth numbers tell you the calendar date. For example, a date code ending in 1212 means the date of production was November 22. On 1stDibs, find a variety of expertly vetted Dior bags.
- Is Dior a luxury brand?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022Yes, Dior is a luxury brand. Typically, a luxury brand is any that produces non-essential goods of exceptional quality and sells them at a high price point. The garments, accessories and jewelry made by Dior fit this definition. Find a large selection of Dior on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022To clean a Dior canvas bag, moisten a soft cloth with lukewarm water. Add a few drops of mild dish soap and rub the ends of the cloth together to create lather. Gently wipe the entire bag. Then, moisten a second cloth and wipe again to remove the soap. Shop a large selection of Dior canvas bags on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022To authenticate a Dior scarf, examine the tag. Designs vary from year to year, but generally the tag will display at least the brand name in the correct font. On an authentic Dior scarf, the tag is usually perfectly parallel to the edge of the scarf and the printing appears centered and crisp. The stitching that holds the tag should be evenly spaced. Find a collection of expertly vetted Dior scarves on 1stDibs.