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Featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt, the New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women’s fashion. After years of military and civilian uniforms, sartorial restrictions and shortages, Dior offered not merely a new look but a new outlook.
- Silhouette
Day dresses, casual wear, and playsuits in the 1950s...
- Pisanelle
With his "New Look" collection of 1947, Christian Dior...
- Junon
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Style: Celebrating Fifty...
- Bar
Bar - Christian Dior (1905–1957) - The Metropolitan Museum...
- Silhouette
- Overview
- Early life and art career
- House of Dior
- Death and legacy
Christian Dior (born January 21, 1905, Granville, France—died October 24, 1957, Montecatini, Italy) was a French fashion designer whose New Look style—characterized by ultrafeminine and highly sculptured clothing—dominated fashion in the decade following World War II. His eponymous fashion house is one of the most iconic in the world.
Dior was one of five children born to Marie-Madeleine Dior (née Martin) and Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior, who owned a lucrative manufacturing business. The family later divided its time between Paris and a villa in Granville, France. His parents wanted him to become a diplomat, and Christian Dior studied political science at the University of Paris. However, his true passion was art, and, while in his early 20s, he began selling illustrations on the street.
Later, with financial help from his father, Dior opened a small art gallery. There he showed works by such artists as Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Jean Cocteau. However, in the midst of the Great Depression (1929–39), his father’s business folded, and the younger Dior was forced to close the gallery. He subsequently found work as a fashion illustrator, hired by various designers as well as the magazine Figaro Illustré.
“In an epoch as somber as ours, luxury must be defended inch by inch.”
Backed by French entrepreneur Marcel Boussac, Dior founded his own fashion house in 1946. The following year he introduced the revolutionary New Look, spurring international controversy over its radically lowered hemline. The look featured small shoulders, a cinched waist, and a voluminous skirt—a drastic change from the World War II trend of padded shoulders and short skirts. One of the most defining pieces was the Bar Jacket: a fitted collared jacket that slightly flared below the waist. It was often paired with a full skirt. The name of Dior’s style was based on a quote by Harper’s Bazaar’s editor in chief Carmel Snow, who said that Dior had created a “New Look.”
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The overnight sensation of the New Look was followed by 10 years of outstanding success. In the 1950s Dior introduced a variety of new silhouettes, including the H-line, the A-line, and the Y-line. Dior was instrumental in commercializing Parisian fashion on a worldwide basis and in regaining for Parisian couturiers the ground that had temporarily been lost to American designers. His devoted following included socialites, celebrities, and royalty. However, not everyone was fond of his work. Legendary French designer Coco Chanel, who was known for simple clothing, claimed that Dior “doesn’t dress women, he upholsters them.”
Awash in creativity
In 1956 Dior published the autobiography Christian Dior et moi (Dior by Dior). The following year he suffered a fatal heart attack while vacationing in Italy. His assistant, Yves Saint Laurent, took over the couture house. Saint Laurent held this position until 1960, when he was drafted into the French army. Subsequent creative directors at the Hou...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sep 27, 2021 · In the aftermath of World War II, French fashion designer Christian Dior spearheaded a new era of style with his extravagant, ultrafeminine creations.
- Isis Davis-Marks
Dec 13, 2022 · In 1947, World War II had come to an end, and this era marked a shift not only in politics but in the world of fashion as well. Christian Dior revealed his debut haute couture collection, launching his eponymous brand with A-line skirts, tight corsets, and structured silhouettes (via Vogue).
- Reagan Kelly
Sep 29, 2016 · “There are two Christian Diors,” he wrote in his 1956 memoir, Christian Dior & I. And the designing Dior, having a ravenous appetite for change, created a new silhouette each season.
Apr 2, 2014 · Legendary fashion designer Christian Dior exploded onto the Paris fashion scene with designs that flew in the face of wartime restrictions and reintroduced a femininity and focus on luxury to...
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May 19, 2019 · In 1947, Christian Dior unwittingly prompted a transcontinental reappraisal of the relationships of femininity and culture: were women to be muses, icons, agents, or all three?
