Christian Dior - the standard of elegance

Accomplished by:Mardare Victoria

Christian Dior was a French couturier, best known for
his eponymous fashion house which is often referred
to as just Dior.
•Born in the seaside town of Granville on the coast of
Normandy in 1905, he was the son of a wealthy
fertiliser manufacturer and was one of five children.
Aged five, he moved with his family to Paris.
•Although his parents had hopes of him becoming a
diplomat, Dior was artistically inclined and began to
sell his sketches on the street to make pocket money.
•He founded the house of Christian Dior on
December 16, 1946 at 30 Avenue Montaigne Paris,
backed by Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate.
•On February 12, 1947, Dior showed his debut
collection,presenting the 90 different looks. Named
"Corolle" and "Huit", the lines were quickly
christened the "New Look".
The look consisted of a calf-length skirt, a cinched
waist, and a fuller bust than at the turn of the
century.
By 1949, Christian Dior's instinct for calibrated innovations of
the body's "line" had established him as fashion's preeminent
arbiter. That year, dresses called "Venus" and "Junon," or Hera
to the Greeks, were among the most coveted of his designs.
Dior's Venus was realized in the delicate eighteenth-century
gray that was his signature, frosted with iridescent beading and
embroidery. But his Junon is more vividly conceived. The
magnificent skirt of ombréed petals, like abstractions of
peacock feathers without their "eyes," obliquely references the
bird associated with the Queen of the Olympians.

"Junon"fall/winter 1949–50
Designer Christian Dior
Since 1947, with each new collection, Dior has set the general
trends in fashion. After several years in which his collections
followed the lines set by the New Look, in 1954 the designer
turned against his own creations and proposed another style -
the "H Line" or the so-called Flat look - with straight lines,
slightly masculine, and clothes tighter on the body. But whatever
the "monarch of haute couture" proposed, as Dior had been
called, was immediately accepted by women as a must-have
trend. Therefore, the Dior brand continued to grow from year to
year, and the business was worth, in 1953, 17 million dollars, a
significant amount for the time.
He was known to be very superstitious, a quality
which increased with age. Each collection included
a coat named after his place of birth, Granville; in
each show at least one model wore a bunch of his
favourite flower, lily of the valley; and he never
began a couture show without having consulted his
tarot card reader.
Christian Dior died in 1957 after a heart
attack; he was only 52 years old. But his
contribution to the world of fashion
ensured Dior a definitive and privileged
place in the pantheon of the great fashion
designers of the 20th century. Christian
Dior has remained synonymous with
creativity and absolute elegance.