FASHION
The Dior years
GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN
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Even today, as one walks past 30 Avenue Montaigne in the heart of Paris, it is not unusual to sense the spirit of a man who made women feel divinely feminine.
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CHRISTIAN DIOR's mother, Madeleine, wanted her son to be a political ambassador. Instead, he became an envoy for couture. His designs that hit the war-ravaged Paris of 1947 not just showed off delicate hipped French women in their flawless perfection, but burst out at a time when the city was thirsting for fun and colour after the drab dark years. Dior was 42 and in an exuberant mood to make the battered and bruised world look gloriously new. And he did just that with a label he named after himself, the first stylist to do so, and with garments that spelt energy and excitement.
And, above all, a beautiful sense of femininity. The long War years had made men out of women, who were called upon to do utterly male jobs and had to, therefore, often wear unflattering and unfeminine clothes. The period of shortages and awful rationing left women with little vigour to look good. Dior's extravagant creations swept them off their feet, and transported them to a sublimely flattering existence.
The first lessons
Christian was born at Angers in France on January 21, 1905, to Madeleine and Maurice Dior. He was their second child, out of the five boys and girls they had. Little Christian was different from the rest: he did not quite look a Norman, and he was meek and loved being around his mother, helping her in the garden she loved and designing the house she considered her world.
Later, during World War I, when the Diors moved to Granville on the coast near St. Malo, one would assume that Christian's talent as designer emerged, though nobody had the vaguest of inkling that the boy would someday write fashion history. At Granville's annual carnival, he would style with remarkable imagination outfits for his friends and siblings.
When this War ended, Christian the teenager spent a lot of his time visiting art galleries and bars, and rubbed shoulders with painters and writers such as Picasso and Cocteau. These associations instilled in Christian the first lessons in the art of dressing, and although family pressure forced him to do a course in political science rather than in fine arts, he never, it would seem, lose sight of the fact that he wanted to be someone quite other than a political envoy.
WINNING COMBINATION: Dior was the man who made the world look good with fashion and accesssories, fragrance and beauty. PHOTOS: AFP
It was not until he was 41 that he was finally able to establish his own fashion house at 30 Avenue Montaigne in the heart of Paris, just a stone's throw from the famed Champs Elysees. Christian Dior stands there to this day, proudly telling all those who walk into the building or pass by it that the day of opening was December 16, 1946. The time was nine in the morning, when five people entered its portals. One of them was Dior himself.
Admittedly, Dior had been designing couture for many years before that cold December morning. His friend, Jacques Ozenne, taught him how to perfect his drawings, and soon Dior's styles were being used by all the top couturiers. His hats were especially popular.
In 1938 he became a full time modeliste, designing the clothes for Robert Piquet. His distinctive creations were an immediate success, particularly a dress called Cafe Anglais, in houndstooth with a petticoat edging. He was fast becoming the person to know. His first foray into theatre design was in 1939, designing the clothes for "A School for Scandal".
When World War II ended, Dior was bent on opening his own establishment, and he knew that he would do so soon, because his astrologer had told him so! Well, it came true. In 1946, Marcel Boussac, a textile manufacturer, was looking for a designer, and he spotted Dior, whose only condition was that he would design under his own name and label. Boussac agreed, and history was created.
`Miss Dior'
Dior opened his house, and to add a whiff of fragrance to the occasion, he also came out with a new perfume, "Miss Dior", which still fascinates women, and, of course, the men who love them.
Dior's tight bodices and long flowing, wide skirts proved to be a hit, despite their initial problem of acceptance. The American Press could never understand why Dior wanted to cover women's beautiful legs. Dior stuck to his dream of making his woman utterly feminine, and many eventually loved him for that. Dior, who died of a heart attack in October 1957, undoubtedly defined a great moment in fashion era. He shaped a marquee which still stands for all that is elegant and alluring. Indeed, his name has become synonymous with Parisian chic. Dior is fashion.
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