Christian Dior

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox fashion designer

Christian Ernest Dior ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained prominence "on five continents in only a decade."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Dior's skills led to his employment and design for various fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry during World War II. After the war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the "New Look". In 1947, the collection debuted featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt. The New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women's fashion.

Throughout his lifetime, and after his death, he won numerous awards for Best Costume Design. He died in 1957.

Early lifeEdit

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The Christian Dior Home and Museum in Granville, France

Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France. He was the second of five children born to Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, formerly Madeleine Martin. He had four siblings: Raymond (father of Françoise Dior), Jacqueline, Bernard, and Catherine Dior.<ref name=Pochna5>Pochna, M-F. (1996). Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New p. 5, Arcade Publishing. Template:ISBN.</ref> When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris.<ref name=bibby>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Dior's family had hoped he would become a diplomat, but Dior was interested in art.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each (US$Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year dollarsTemplate:Inflation-fn). In 1928, he 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. Alongside managing his art gallery, Dior cultivated friendships with influential artists, including Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti. Immersed in this creative environment, Dior drew inspiration from their work, which shaped his later approach in fashion design.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The gallery closed three years later, following the deaths of Dior's mother and brother, as well as financial trouble during the Great Depression that resulted in his father losing control of the family business.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=boa /> Dior had no choice but to find another source of income.<ref name="boa">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In search of work, Dior again created and sold fashion sketches. Those sketches were discovered by fashion designer Robert Piguet.<ref name="boa"/> From 1937, Dior was employed by Piguet, who gave him the opportunity to design for three collections.<ref name=marly>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=pochna2>Template:Cite book</ref> Dior later said that "Robert Piguet taught me the virtues of simplicity through which true elegance must come."<ref name=quin>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> One of his original designs for Piguet, a day dress with a short, full skirt that was in his collection called "Cafe Anglais", was particularly well received.<ref name=marly/><ref name=pochna2/> Whilst working for Piguet, Dior worked alongside Pierre Balmain, and was succeeded as house designer by Marc Bohan – who would, in 1960, become head of design for Christian Dior Paris.<ref name=pochna2/> Dior left Piguet when he was called up for military service.<ref name=bibby/>

In 1942, when Dior left the army, he joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration of World War II, Dior, as an employee of Lelong, 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, Jeanne Lanvin, and Nina Ricci.<ref>Jayne Sheridan, Fashion, Media, Promotion: The New Black Magic (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), p. 44.</ref><ref>Yuniya Kawamura, The Japanese Revolution in Fashion (Berg Publishers, 2004), page 46. As quoted in the book, Lelong was a leading force in keeping the French fashion industry from being forcibly moved to Berlin, arguing, "You can impose anything upon us by force, but Paris couture cannot be uprooted, neither as a whole or in any part. Either it stays in Paris, or it does not exist. It is not within the power of any nation to steal fashion creativity, for not only does it function quite spontaneously, also it is the product of a tradition maintained by a large body of skilled men and women in a variety of crafts and trades." Kawamura explains that the survival of the French fashion industry was critical to the survival of France, stating, "Export of a single dress by a leading couturier enabled the country to buy ten tons of coal, and a liter of perfume was worth two tons of petrol" (page 46).</ref> His sister, Catherine (1917–2008), a member of the French Resistance, was captured by the Gestapo and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was incarcerated until her liberation in May 1945.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1947, Dior named his debut fragrance Miss Dior in tribute to her.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Dior was known for being superstitious. He often consulted his astrologer before making decisions, and his collections frequently featured talismanic symbols. He also carried a cluster of lucky charms with him, believing they brought him good fortune.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At a pivotal moment when industrialist Marcel Boussac offered six million francs to establish Maison Christian Dior, Dior accepted only after receiving approval from two separate clairvoyants.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

The Dior fashion houseEdit

Template:Stack In 1946, Marcel Boussac, a successful entrepreneur, invited Dior to design for Philippe et Gaston, a Paris fashion house launched in 1925.<ref name=rom>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand.<ref name=pochna>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1946, with Boussac's backing, Dior founded his fashion house, ensuring exclusive control over the company and securing a third of all profits in addition to his salary.<ref name=":0" /> The name of the line of his first collection, presented on 12 February 1947,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was Corolle (literally the botanical term corolla or circlet of flower petals in English). Dior's debut collection included a launch of 90 garments displayed in outfits.<ref name="sowray2012" /> The phrase New Look was coined for it by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar.<ref name=bibby/>

Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles that had been influenced by the wartime rationing of fabric.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite being called "New," the Corolle line was clearly drawn from styles of the Edwardian era,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> refining and crystallizing trends in skirt shape and waistline that had been burgeoning in high fashion since the late 1930s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The house employed Pierre Cardin as head of its tailoring atelier for the first three years of its existence,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and it was Cardin who designed one of the most popular of the Corolle ensembles, the 1947 Bar suit.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The "New Look" revolutionized women's dress, reestablished Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World War II,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and made Dior a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decade.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dior's collection was an inspiration to many women post-war and helped them regain their love for fashion.<ref name="boa"/> Dior believed that fashion was more than clothing; it was an art form and a continuation of French cultural heritage. He described maintaining the tradition of fashion as 'an act of faith,' a way to preserve the mystery and beauty that fashion brought to society.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Each season featured a newly titled Dior "line," in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would be trumpeted in the fashion press:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> the Envol<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Cyclone/Zigzag lines<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1948; the Trompe l'Oeil<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Mid-Century lines<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> in 1949; the Vertical<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Oblique lines<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1950; the Oval<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Longue/Princesse<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> lines in 1951; the Sinueuse<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Profilėe<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> lines in 1952; the Tulipe<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Vivante/Cupola lines<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1953; the Muguet/Lily of the Valley line<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and H-Line<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1954; the A-Line<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Y-Line<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> in 1955; the Flèche/Arrow/F-Line<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Aimant/Magnet line<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> in 1956; and the Libre/Free<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Fuseau/Spindle lines<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1957, followed by successor Yves Saint Laurent's Trapeze line in 1958.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Dior's last collections, such as the “Libre” and “Fuseau” lines, marked a shift toward a more fluid, relaxed silhouette, distancing from the structured designs of earlier years. These changes reflected Dior's response to the era's evolving social dynamics, foreshadowing styles that would become iconic in the late 1950s and 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1955, 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Dior told Saint Laurent's mother in 1957 that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She indicated later that she was confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time, but he died later that year.<ref name="sowray2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DeathEdit

Dior died of a third heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, on 24 October 1957 in the late afternoon while playing a game of cards.<ref name="time">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was survived by Jacques Benita, a North African singer three decades his junior, the last of a number of discreet male lovers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="NYT 2002">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards and honorsEdit

File:Stamps of Romania, 2005-002.jpg

Dior on a Romanian stamp (2005)

Dior was nominated for the 1955 Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black and white for the Terminal Station directed by Vittorio De Sica (1953). He was also nominated in 1967 for a BAFTA for Best British Costume (Colour) for the Arabesque directed by Stanley Donen (1966).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For the 11th César Awards in 1986, he was nominated for Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) for the 1985 film Bras de fer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>