HISTORY OF DIOR (IG @FashionSpeak)

Christian Ernest Dior

(French: [kʁistjɑ̃ djɔʁ]; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, 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. 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.

The Dior fashion house

In 1946, Marcel Boussac, a successful entrepreneur known as the richest man in France, invited Dior to design for Philippe et Gaston, 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, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar.

The famous "Bar Suit" on display at the

Denver Art Museum (2019).

Despite being called "New", it was clearly drawn from styles of the Edwardian era.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.

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