We recall how Christian Dior's love for flowers and feminine beauty was born and how it was embodied in the aesthetics of a woman-flower and the "new bow" style.
The collection from the new Burda issue 08/2019 called "Delicate Flower" has become the theme of the issue, and within its framework we can’t ignore the famous Flower Girl created by the great couturier. A real inspiration for all lovers of fashion history!
A little biography
Dior family in the garden of their villa in Granville
Christian Dior was born in 1905 in France, in the town of Granville on the English Channel. In 1911, his family moved to Paris. Christian was prepared for a diplomatic career, although the boy himself was more attracted to art. As a result, the pursuit of beauty prevailed. Entering the Institute for Political Studies, Christian abandoned his studies a year later. He preferred to spend time in museums, theaters, and cinema; he himself took up painting. And soon, in 1928, finding a sponsor, he opened his own gallery, where he exhibited, including Picasso and Matisse.
Young Christian Dior in the garden of a villa in Granville
The 1930s became difficult for the Dior family: Christian's brother fell seriously ill, his mother died, his father went bankrupt. The future fashion designer sought solace in travel and creativity: he drew and created sketches of carpets. But there were no customers. The gallery had to be closed, part of the paintings - sold. Christian's family left the capital for the province, and he remained in Paris. In search of ways to earn money, Dior begins to draw sketches of hats and dresses, and his friend, Jean Ozenn, who works as a fashion artist, helps with the contacts of tailors and magazines.
Dior at work
Because of the war, Dior had to interrupt his career in the fashion world: in 1938 he was drafted into the army. He returned to Paris in 1941, worked in the fashion house of Lucien Lelong. A year later, he created his own perfume laboratory. And a few years later, according to legend, on the advice of a fortuneteller, she opened a fashion house in her own name. Christian Dior was 42 years old at that moment.
Christian Dior, 1950s
The first collection, released in 1947, marked the beginning of the worldwide fame of Dior. After the harsh military and post-war years, his delicate, luxurious and sophisticated dresses returned femininity and fragility to fashion. All the years of work at the head of the House, Dior praised the female beauty with his fashionable creations, treating her with respect and admiration. Dior died at the age of 52 from a heart attack. He stayed on fashion Olympus for only 10 years, managing to become one of the most famous designers in history and creating his own style and aesthetics that are still relevant.
Christian Dior and Ava Gardner in a Christian Dior dress. Paris, June 1956
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Christian Dior and the New Look style: how to achieve the standard of beauty with the help of clothes
Dior, flowers and women
Miss Dior dress, Haute Couture spring-summer 1949
Dior at work
The biographers of the great fashion designer write that special admiration and love for flowers dates back to Dior's childhood. When the family of little Christian lived on the English Channel, his mother worked in the family estate with garden and flowers. The future designer was happy to help her mother, and his reference book was an extensive catalog of seeds and plants of Vilmorena-Andrieux, which she used.
Subsequently, taking up fashion, Dior found a source of inspiration in flowers - and with the same strength he was inspired and admired by the beauty of a woman. He devoted his first collection in 1947 to flowers and a new revival of female beauty. Two objects of admiration merged into one, and Christian Dior's flower woman appeared.
The first Dior show in 1947 (we recommend taking a closer look at the faces of the audience in order to understand how Dior’s creations surprised everyone)
“We left behind an era of war, uniforms, and labor service for women with broad shoulders of wrestlers. I drew women resembling flowers, softly convex shoulders, a rounded chest line, lianike-like slender waists and wide, diverging like cups of flowers downward, skirts, "the designer recalled the creation of the first collection. These silhouettes were not a direct quote from the pre-war fashion with tight corsets and uncomfortable crinolines. It was a new look at femininity - New Look, as Harper's Bazaar editor Carmel Snow called it then.
Model from the spring-summer 1947 collection
Dress created by Dior for the 21st anniversary of the British Princess Margaret, adaptation of one of the ensembles of the spring-summer 1951 collection
Dior released two collections a year, and in each there was always a place for flowers in one embodiment or another. These were forms, cut, and prints, and floral decoration, and the very attitude to a woman as a delightful, fragile, delicate creature. “Flowers. This is the Lord’s finest gift to the world after a woman. A flower on a belt, in a buttonhole or in a neckline - and now everyone has a holiday around. I'm not talking about floral patterns, without which I just can’t imagine any of my collections,” - One of Christian Dior's most famous quotes.
Dior show, 1954
Dior at work, 1948
Most of all Christian Dior loved lilies of the valley, they were the favorite flowers of his mother, whom he always admired. The lilies of the valley were sewn on the lining and borders of the designer’s creations, the lily of the valley Dior himself liked to insert into his buttonhole. He considered the queen of the gardens to be a rose - decor and skirts in the form of roses are found on his dresses, and it was the pink color that was one of the designer’s favorites. The dresses he created were compared with tulips and bells, and the prints and decorations on the fabrics that he used made us remember the blooming garden. At the audience’s shows, flowers were also met. Fashion, flowers and female beauty were Dior's true passion.
Christian Dior fall-winter 2013/14 and archive model 1949
Christian Dior and Model
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Test: how well do you know the work of Christian Dior?
Dior Gardens
Dior in one of the gardens
By the way, having become a successful and famous designer, Christian Dior returned to cultivating flowers and plants. “Planting lilac, pears, willow, picking tulip bulbs, picking cosmea and zinnia colors, telling about growing peas or tarragon - in this, Christian Dior was second to none ... In second place after fashion, his favorite pastime was returning to the ground,” - says Marika Genti in the biography of Christian Dior, compiled by Marie-France Pokna. In country houses surrounded by gardens, Dior rested from Parisian life, doing gardening with his own hands. In one of these houses, in Montoru, he was going to settle on his declining years. "I can complete the cycle of my life by returning to the origins and finding in another place, under a different sky, the fence of the garden that guarded my childhood," wrote Dior.
Dior in one of the gardens at work
It turned out that, as we know, it was not destined to come true. But even after the death of Dior, the whole history and aesthetics of his fashion house continues to be associated with a floral theme. What is the collection of 2012 by Raf Simons, then - the creative director of the House. The collection received the unspoken name "Flower Woman": the models were referred to the "new bow" style created by Dior. And the catwalk took place in the scenery, from top to bottom decorated with buds of flowers - roses, peonies, orchids, mimosas, delphiniums.
Christian Dior Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2012
Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2013
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MORE INTERESTING ARTICLES, MASTER CLASSES AND PATTERNS ARE WAITING FOR YOU ON THE PAGE TOPIC OF THE ISSUE!
Photo: Dior
