A broke and essentially homeless Dior the loss of his apartment made him dependent on friends contracted tuberculosis, a life threatening disease that put him in a sanatorium for a year. At the suggestion of a friend, Christian took up drawing and eventually sold sketches to magazines and couture houses. His artwork interested Robert Piguet, a Swiss fashion designer at the couture house of Lucien Lelong. Dior had found his calling, working in the fashion industry.
But the war and the invasion of France put his career on hold. After being mobilized for a short time for land work in the south of France, Dior returned to Paris and to the diminished fashion industry. Apparently, Dior passed information gleaned from the wives of Nazi bigwigs to his sister who was in the resistance. His sister was captured and hauled off to Ravensbruck.
Dior used his position to help in her release. He later honored her by naming a perfume Miss Dior. In an April meeting with Boussac, Dior described the public's need for a new post war style. He wanted to return to the luxury of the Belle Epoque but with designs based on a new simplicity created by exquisite craft. Impressed, Boussac provided the financial backing for Dior to open his own design firm. On the morning of February 12, , Maison Christian Dior introduced his Corelle collection to a war-weary society.
Dulled by years of austerity, people hungered for something new and fresh. When the much publicized show opened at AM to a packed house, a collective gasp met models clad in unprecedented swaths of fabric. A society used to simple boxy shapes, short skirts, and a military look gobbled up the extravagant sweep of Dior's Corelle line. In a time when hemlines brushed just below the knee, Dior's skirts fell to 14 inches above the floor. Following a time when the government restricted the amount of fabric used to produce garments, Dior's full skirts were reminiscent of mid 19th century crinolines.
Tiny, corset cinched waistlines, full busts, padded hips, and soft shoulder lines created a revolutionary new female form. The show closed to a standing ovation. Doir's designs made the cover of Life Magazine. Press releases turned him into an instant celebrity. Princesses and movie stars snatched up dresses in a frenzy of unfettered hedonism.
For a society starved of snazz, the Corelle line was a romantic change of perspective, introducing a fashion renaissance. Within hours, the contents of women's wardrobes became obsolete. Carmell Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar exclaimed that Dior offered fashion with a "new look.
The Bar jacket, which went on to become one of the most recognisable signature designs of the house, was shown in the form of an ivory silk shantung morning coat with a snug collar and rounded peplums that closely followed the curves of the bust. Matched with a large pleated flare skirt and completed with a little black pillar-box hat, gloves and fine slender shoes a stark contrast against the square-toed shoes with wedged heels that were in fashion at the time , it offered an elegant swing that had never been seen before.
Your dresses have such a new look! Before the war, couture shows were presented in intimate salon spaces intended for clients, and therefore photographers were not allowed in; instead, the creations were sketched by artists. He went on to regularly design collections twice a year exclusive to the American markets — a decision that, altogether, made him a profit of Though this pioneering business model received heavy protests from the French Chamber of Couture , who thought the move was cheapening the haute couture industry, it actually helped put Parisian haute couture back on the international stage.
The strategy proved to be a very profitable one for Dior and, eventually, almost every fashion house at the time would follow suit. He also accomplished most of his success in the last ten years of his relatively brief and tumultuous life. Having studied political science in his youth, Dior served in France's armed forces and then moved back to Paris in the mids.
The times were hard and Dior began selling some of his fashion sketches to make money. After improving his designs over the next few years, he acquired his first real fashion job working for designer Robert Piguet in He acquired another apprenticeship, this time with the designing firm Lucien Lelong. Dior's designs were very well received and it was not to long before Dior established his own design house with the support of French entrepreneur Marcel Boussac.
His "New Look," as it became known, was unapologetically feminine with skirts long, gown-like and opulent. The commercial success of his post-war designs led to a rapid rise in popularity, and also somewhat of a re-establishing of Paris as the center of the world of Haute Couture design.
Dior continued to run his successful fashion house until his sudden death at a health spa in Montecatini, Italy in Today the House of Dior has expanded beyond women's wear to include also menswear, accessories, jewelry, beauty products, and fragrances. By Liana Satenstein. Latest Shows Seasons Designers Featured. Story Saved.
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