Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French

fashion design Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place. "A fashion designer creates ...

er, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses,

Christian Dior SE Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds 42.36% shares ...

, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses are known all around the world, specifically "on five continents in only a decade" (Sauer). He was the second child of a family of seven, born to Maurice Dior and Madeleine Martin, in the town of Granville. Dior's artistic skills led to his employment and design for various well-known fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Post-war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the " New Look" revolutionising women's dress and contributing to the reestablishment of Paris as the centre of the fashion world. Throughout his lifetime, he won numerous awards for Best Costume Design. Upon his death in 1957, various contemporary icons paid tribute to his life and work.

Early life

Christian Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, France. He was the second of five children born to

Maurice Dior Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior (7 February 1872 – 9 December 1946) was a French industrialist, and the father of grand couturier Christian Dior and French Resistance member Catherine Dior. Early life Maurice Dior was born in Normandy and cam ...

, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, formerly

Madeleine Martin Madeleine Elizabeth Martin (born April 15, 1993) is an American actress, known for her role as the character Rebecca "Becca" Moody on Showtime comedy-drama ''Californication''. Early life Martin grew up in New York City, United States. As her ...

. He had four siblings: Raymond (father of

Françoise Dior Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior (7 April 1932 – 20 January 1993) was a French socialite and neo-Nazi underground financier. She was the niece of French fashion designer Christian Dior and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior, who publicly distance ...

), Jacqueline, Bernard, and

Catherine Dior Ginette Dior (2 August 1917 – 17 June 2008), better known as Catherine Dior, was a French resistance fighter during World War II. Involved with the Franco-Polish intelligence unit F2 from November 1941, she was arrested in Paris in July 1944 by ...

.Pochna, M-F. (1996). ''Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New'' p. 5, Arcade Publishing. . When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris, but still returned to the Normandy coast for summer holidays. Dior's family had hoped he would become a diplomat, but Dior was artistic and wished to be involved in art. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each. In 1928, Dior left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery, where he and a friend sold art by the likes of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. The gallery was closed three years later, following the deaths of Dior's mother and brother, as well as financial trouble during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

that resulted in his father losing control of the family business. From 1937, Dior was employed by the fashion designer

Robert Piguet Robert Piguet (1898 – 1953) was a Swiss-born, Paris-based fashion designer who is mainly remembered for training Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy. The Piguet fashion house ran from 1933 to 1951; since then, the brand Robert Piguet has been ...

, who gave him the opportunity to design for three Piguet collections. Dior would later say that "Robert Piguet taught me the virtues of simplicity through which true elegance must come." One of his original designs for Piguet, a day dress with a short, full skirt called "Cafe Anglais", was particularly well received. Whilst at Piguet, Dior worked alongside

Pierre Balmain Pierre Alexandre Claudius Balmain (; 18 May 1914 – 29 June 1982) was a French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house Balmain. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dressmaking as "the archite ...

, and was succeeded as house designer by Marc Bohan – who would, in 1960, become head of design for Christian Dior Paris. Dior left Piguet when he was called up for military service. In 1942, when Dior left the army, he joined the fashion house of

Lucien Lelong Lucien Lelong (; 11 October 1889 – 11 May 1958) was a French couturier who was prominent from the 1920s to the 1940s. Career Born in Paris as the son of Arthur Lelong, the owner of a fashion store, he trained at the Hautes Etudes de Commer ...

, where he and Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Dior, as an employee of Lelong – who labored to preserve the French fashion industry during wartime for economic and artistic reasons - designed dresses for the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, including

Jean Patou Jean Patou (; 27 September 1887 – 8 March 1936) was a French fashion designer, and founder of the Jean Patou brand. Early life Patou was born in Paris, France in 1887. Patou's family's business was tanning and furs. Patou worked with his ...

Jeanne Lanvin Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (; 1 January 1867 – 6 July 1946) was a French haute couture fashion designer. She founded the Lanvin fashion house and the beauty and perfume company Lanvin Parfums. Early life Jeanne Lanvin was born in Paris on 1 Janua ...

, and Nina Ricci. His sister, Catherine (1917–2008), served as a member of the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, was captured by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

, and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was incarcerated until her liberation in May 1945. In 1947, he named his debut fragrance, ''Miss Dior'' in tribute to his sister.

The Dior fashion house

In 1946,

Marcel Boussac Marcel Boussac (17 April 1889 – 21 March 1980) was a French entrepreneur best known for his ownership of the Maison Dior and one of the most successful thoroughbred race horse breeding farms in European history. Born in Châteauroux, Indre, ...

, a successful entrepreneur known as the richest man in France, invited Dior to design for

Philippe et Gaston Philippe et Gaston was a Paris couture house established in 1922. It rapidly became a prestigious establishment. In 1926 it was ranked alongside Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin as a notable French fashion house. By 1931, it was well kno ...

, a Paris fashion house launched in 1925. Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand. On 8 December 1946, with Boussac's backing, Dior founded his fashion house. The name of the line of his first collection, presented on 12 February 1947, was ''Corolle'' (literally the botanical term ''corolla'' or ''circlet of flower petals'' in English). The phrase ''New Look'' was coined for it by

Carmel Snow Carmel Snow, born Carmel White (21 August 1887 – 7 May 1961), was the editor-in-chief of the American edition of ''Harper's Bazaar'' from 1934 to 1958; and the chair of the magazine's editorial board. She was famously quoted as saying, "E ...

, the editor-in-chief of '' Harper's Bazaar''. Despite being called "New", it was clearly drawn from styles of the

Edwardian era The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...

. The ''New Look'' merely refined and crystallized trends in skirt shape and waistline that had been burgeoning in high fashion since the late 1930s. Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the wartime rationing of

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...

. Dior was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes. Dior was quoted as saying: "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with

percale Percale is a closely woven plain-weave fabric often used for bed covers. Percale has a thread count of about 200 or higher and is noticeably tighter than the standard type of weave used for bedsheets. It has medium weight, is firm and smooth w ...

, boned, bustier-style

bodice A bodice () is an article of clothing traditionally for women and girls, covering the torso from the neck to the waist. The term typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the ...

s, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets, and

petticoat A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British En ...

s that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form. Alla Ilchun kazakh model of

Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. Some of the backlash to Dior's designs was also due to the amount of fabric used in a single dress or suit. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel said of the "New Look": "Look how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn't know women, never had one, and dreams of being one." During one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over this profligacy, but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The " New Look" revolutionized women's dress and reestablished

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as the centre of the fashion world after

, as well as making Dior a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decade. Each season featuring a newly titled Dior "line", in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would then be trumpeted in the fashion press: the Envol and Cyclone/Zigzag lines in 1948; the Trompe l'Oeil and Mid-Century lines in 1949; the Vertical and Oblique lines in 1950; the Naturelle/Princesse and Longue lines in 1951; the Sinueuse and Profilėe lines in 1952; the Tulipe and Vivante lines in 1953; the Muguet/Lily of the Valley line and H-Line in 1954; the A-Line and Y-Line in 1955; the Flèche/Arrow and Aimant/Magnet lines in 1956; and the Libre/Free and Fuseau/Spindle lines in 1957, followed by successor Yves Saint Laurent's Trapeze line in 1958. In 1955, the 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Christian Dior later met with Yves Saint Laurent's mother, Lucienne Mathieu-Saint Laurent, in 1957, to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She indicated later that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time.

Death

Christian Dior died of a sudden heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, on 24 October 1957 in the late afternoon while playing a game of cards. He was survived by Jacques Benita, an Algerian singer, the last of a number of discreet male lovers.

Awards and honors

Dior was nominated for the 1955 Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black and white for the ''

Terminal Station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing su ...

'' directed by

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...

(1953). Dior was also nominated in 1967 for a BAFTA for Best British Costume (Colour) for the ''

Arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

'' directed by

Stanley Donen Stanley Donen ( ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are '' On the Town,'' (1949) and ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), both of which he co-directed with Gene Kell ...

(1966). Nominated in 1986 for his contributions to the 1985 film, ''Bras de fer'', he was up for Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) during the 11th Cesar Awards.

Cultural references

A novella by

Paul Gallico Paul William Gallico (July 26, 1897 – July 15, 1976) was an American novelist and short story and sports writer.Ivins, Molly,, ''The New York Times'', July 17, 1976. Retrieved Oct. 25, 2020. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictu ...

, ''

Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris ''Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris'' is a novel written by Paul Gallico and published in 1958. In the United Kingdom, it was published as ''Flowers for Mrs Harris''. It was the first in a series of four books about the adventures of a London charwoman. P ...

'' (1958, UK title ''Flowers for Mrs Harris''), tells the story of a London

charwoman A charwoman (also chargirl, charlady or char) is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually ...

who falls in love with her employer's

couture Couture may refer to: People * Couture (surname) Places Belgium * Couture-Saint-Germain, a village in the municipality of Lasne, Belgium Canada * Couture crater and Lac Couture, an impact crater and the lake that covers it in Quebec, Canada ...

wardrobe and goes to Paris to purchase a Dior

ballgown A ball gown, ballgown or gown is a type of evening gown worn to a ball or a formal event. Most versions are cut off the shoulder with a low décolletage, exposed arms, and long bouffant styled skirts. Such gowns are typically worn with an opera- ...

. A perfume named Christian Dior is used in

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

's novel ''

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a novel published in 1994–1995 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The American translation and its British adaptation, dubbed the "only official translations" ( English), are by Jay Rubin and were first published in 1997. For this novel, M ...

'' as an influential symbol placed at critical plot points throughout. The English singer-songwriter

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...

released a song titled "Christian Dior" as a B-side to his 2006 single "

In the Future When All's Well "In the Future When All's Well" was the third single from the album '' Ringleader of the Tormentors'' by Morrissey. It was added to XFM London's playlist on 18 August 2006. It also made BBC Radio 2's C-List and BBC 6 Music's A-List. The single ...

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

released a song titled "

Christian Dior Denim Flow GOOD Fridays was a weekly free music release by rapper Kanye West, launched in support of his fifth studio album '' My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' (2010). The original intention was to release a free new song every Friday for a few months to ...

" in 2010. West mentioned the Dior brand in three other songs: " Devil in a New Dress", " Stronger", and " Barry Bonds". The late American rapper Pop Smoke released a song titled " Dior" in July 2019. Pop Smoke also mentioned the Dior brand in other songs, including " Enjoy Yourself": "Shopping up in Saks Fifth with a cup of Actavis to get Christian Dior; Look, I be all up in the stores (Oh, oh)." In 2016, book publisher

Assouline Assouline Publishing is a book publisher and luxury lifestyle company founded in 1994 by Prosper and Martine Assouline. It has published more than 1,700 titles on subjects including architecture, art, design, fashion, gastronomy, lifestyle, phot ...

introduced an ongoing series devoted to each designer of the couture house of Dior. Published titles include ''Dior by Christian Dior'', ''Dior by YSL'', ''Dior by Marc Bohan'', and ''Dior by Gianfranco Ferre''.

References

External links

Photos of Dior and Samples of New Look Fashion
*

* ttp://www.digitalcollection.chicagohistory.org/cdm/search/collection/p16029coll3/searchterm/dior/field/creato/mode/all/conn/and/order/title Christian Dior at Chicago History Museum Digital Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Dior, Christian 1905 births 1957 deaths People from Manche French fashion designers LGBT fashion designers LGBT artists from France French military personnel of World War II Collège Stanislas de Paris alumni Dior people 20th-century LGBT people