The CURATION Of: La Galerie Dior
Visited 07/11/2022
Key timeline:
Christian Dior fashion house founded in 1946 at 30 Avenue Montaigne.
Dior’s first collection, S/S 1947, was a huge success after Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow claimed, ‘My dear Christian, your dresses have such a new look!’ The ‘New Look’ era revitalised Parisian haute couture. Collection still referenced and inspiring today.
Miss Dior perfume released in 1948. Revolutionised perfumery industry.
Christian Dior dies 1957 age 52, Yves Saint Laurent takes over as Creative Director, aged 21, until 1960.
Beforehand, YSL was appointed by Dior as Head Assistant, the first and only in that position.
YSL replaced by Marc Bohan who has 30 year reign as Creative Director.
Men’s fragrance ‘Eau Sauvage’ released in 1966.
Miss Dior created 1967, their first ready-to-wear line.
Gianfranco Ferré becomes Creative Director of Dior women’s collections 1989. Designed Lady Dior bag in 1994, initially named Chouchou.
In 1995, Diana, Princess of Wales is presented with the Chouchou bag and it was renamed the Lady Dior in her honour.
John Galliano replaces Ferré in 1996. At the 50th anniversary of the House of Dior, in the Met Museum exhibition launch part, Princess Diana wears the first Dior dress designed by Galliano.
In 2012, Raf Simons becomes Creative Director of Dior women’s collections.
In 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri becomes Dior’s first female Creative Director. Her manifesto was of universal female empowerment and an essential, steadfast sisterhood.
La Galerie Dior in Paris.
Christian Dior opened up his atelier with Marcel Boussac in 1946, marking the start of the couture house. Pictured above is that very same seven storey building on 30 Avenue Montaigne, turned into a boutique in 1955, standing proud in Paris’ 8th arrondissement. At present, it is accompanied down the road by Baby Dior, Monsieur Dior (a restaurant), Café Dior, and La Galerie Dior which opened in 2022. Thriving since its inception, and firmly rooted in its own history, global fashion, and popular culture, this is Christian Dior and his six successors own French Revolution.
On immediate entry, this gradient wall display delivers the history of Dior in an inspiring and extensive manner. Surrounding the winding staircase are just under 2000 accessories and dresses as 3D printed miniature replicas sorted by colour. Though you are mesmerised to scale the stairs, the exhibition starts with a staff member leading you into an elevator that takes you up to the second floor.
The first room introduces Christian Dior, before he opened his fashion house, and then the early years once he did. Christian Dior was born in 1907 and grew up in both Normandy and Paris, raised in a very well-off family. In Normandy, he developed his lifelong love for florals, which has reflected heavily onto the brand’s legacy. He surrounded himself with painters, designers and other creatives, and he opened an art gallery with his friend in 1928. He also worked as freelance illustrator, selling his designs to couture houses and publishing magazines. In 1938, he joined Robert Piguet as house designer, followed by designing for Lucien Lelong in 1941-46. Thus, in 1946, satisfied with the knowledge he had accumulated, Dior created his own fashion house.
With his first collection, released for Spring-Summer 1947, Dior received immense acclaim. American magazine Harper’s Bazaar’s editor-in-chief Carmel Snow declared, “My dear Christian, your dresses have such a new look!” And so a new era was born, both in the Dior fashion house and the collection’s revitalisation of Parisian haute couture. The 90 outfits of Dior’s first collection are still referenced and inspiring today.
On we go into The Enchanted Gardens. It is a dark, garden corridor, planted with beautiful floral designs. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s winder garden dress S/S 2017 stuns as it weaves a blossom of coloured petals into the material. The flower motif was prominent right from the start, with Christian Dior’s first ever collection being named ‘Corolle’, translating to ‘circlet of flower petals’ in English. Chiuri, Dior’s sixth successor, stays true to the couture house’s legacy.
Past the corridor is an open garden display of silk dresses which embraced curves and layers in design. The scenographic narrative of La Galerie Dior embodies the fashion house’s spirit with a picture of the Normandy home in the back, all while being displayed in the same building where the atelier began.
Next up are some ready-to-wear looks with digital runway screens of outfits in other collections, neatly staggered. The fashion house introduced their first ready-to-wear line in 1967 under the name Miss Dior, sharing the title with the iconic perfume released in 1947.
As this same building was initially the studio and salon of Dior and his employees, the space in the gallery offers a sneak peek through one of the floors to see what a table looked like in the original environment of this building.
Further into the exhibition we go to see evening gowns of black and white. This dress on the right, held up by a watch that goes around the neck, was a favourite design of mine. In the background of that same picture, you can see a photograph of an art exhibition in 1933 held in an art gallery co-founded by Christian Dior, dedicated to Surrealism.
The next main section was an all white workshop, where a seamstress/dressmaker silently worked away. This room gives attention to the delicate production of Dior’s handcrafted luxury. Along the walls are prototypes presenting experiments on style and material. Bar suit variations and the toga-like dress were what stood out to me here.
Then, some powerfully displayed individual pieces. The red dress from Dior’s Autumn 1992 haute couture collection is complimented by the enhanced details shown in the screens behind. This incredible diamond jewellery reflects the full visible colour spectrum as you looked at it from different angles. The blue vintage dress stands in front of a V-shaped mirror display for us to appreciate its full 360.
Now, the most extravagant of all, the ball room. Classical music enchants as you enter into Dior themed heaven. Three rows of evening gowns pose like godly statues in front of Greco-Roman arches and pillars. The background installation transitions as the cloudy sky gives way to a starry night and finally, gold stars radiate and sparkle and the magic recycles. An entire day could be spent in this room and its beauty would not fade in the slightest.
As with any fashion exhibition, magazine covers through time are included to help visualise and form the public image of the brand - in terms of their role in trends and styles, and their representative models and ambassadors. Side by side here, you can compare the early French magazines to the contemporary covers.
Moving onto Dior perfumery. Incredibly rare Miss Dior Baccarat crystals from 1947 stand together reflecting the French tricolore. This is contrasted with a much more recent take on the Miss Dior perfume. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s special edition Miss Dior with the couture trunk was released in 2021 and only 100 were made available worldwide. This super limited campaign was accompanied and promoted by the dress in the following picture. Dior florals shall always live on.
And before you know it, you have returned to the iconic rainbow staircase. Café Dior shares the same floor and welcomes you in, if you do not want to let go of the immersion just yet. Slow steps are taken down the spiral, serving as liminal space between Dior’s dream world and modern reality. Though it is at least a romanticised Parisian reality at that.
The next three reviews:
The Louvre, Paris
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Sir John Soane's Museum, London
Yaunt - an abbreviation of my Chinese name
Yaunt Gallery - the end goal