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1950s Christian Dior Ballet-Inspired Black Ostrich Feather Cocktail Hat

About
Details
- Designer
- Brand
- DimensionsMarked Size: Medium (US)
- Place of OriginFrance
- Period
- Condition
- Seller LocationSan Francisco, CA
- Reference Number1stDibs: LU505288552
Shipping & Returns
- ShippingShips From: San Francisco, CA
- Return Policy
A return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
About the Designer
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.
- 1950 Miss Dior Created By Christian Dior Black Satin Jet Beaded ClocheBy Christian DiorLocated in San Francisco, CA1950 Miss Dior black silk satin cloche style hat features delicate black jet beading and jeweled drops . The seaming and construction in design allows for a form fit on the crown . T...Category
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- 1950 Christian Dior Black Wool Double-Brimmed Hat w/ Embroidered Floral CascadeBy Christian DiorLocated in San Francisco, CA1950 Christian Dior Chapeaux - Black Wool Double-Brimmed Hat w/ Embroidered Floral Cascade: A mostly minimal designed tiered "double-brimmed" black wool hat with extravagant embroide...Category
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- 1960s Christian Dior Navy Blue Straw and Tulle TurbanBy Christian DiorLocated in San Francisco, CAA beautiful 1960s navy blue straw and tulle Christian Dior turban.Category
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- 1960 Christian Dior By Marc Bohan Black Feather & Quill Structured Cocktail HatBy Christian Dior, Marc BohanLocated in San Francisco, CAA gorgeous 1960s Christian Dior hat by Marc Bohan: A structured turban-style cocktail hat covered in iridescent blue pheasant feathers is enhanced by crisp black feathers that appear...Category
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- 1960s Christian Dior Bone Felt Fedora w/ Colorful Grosgrain Ribbon PatchesBy Christian Dior, Marc BohanLocated in San Francisco, CAA charming and whimsical 1960s Christian Dior wool felt fedora in bone with multicolor grosgrain ribbon "patches" stitched down all over the hat. A wide concentrically stitched brim ...Category
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- 1960s Christian Dior Pretty in Pale Pink Spring Felt Fedora w/ Crochet DetailsBy Christian Dior, Marc BohanLocated in San Francisco, CAA delicate 1960s Christian Dior Pretty-in-Pale-Pink spring felt fedora with beautiful crochet detailing at brim and band. Hippie-chic at it's most ladylike! Size Medium. Mint conditi...Category
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