Christian Ernest Dior (French:[kʁistjɑ̃djɔʁ]; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a Frenchfashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses,Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained prominence "on five continents in only a decade."[2]
Dior's skills led to his employment and design for various fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry duringWorld War II. After the war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the "New Look". In 1947, the collection debuted featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt. The New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women's fashion.
Throughout his lifetime, and after his death, he won numerous awards for Best Costume Design. He died in 1957.
The Christian Dior Home and Museum inGranville, France
Dior was born inGranville, a seaside town on the coast ofNormandy, France. He was the second of five children born toMaurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, formerlyMadeleine Martin. He had four siblings: Raymond (father ofFrançoise Dior), Jacqueline, Bernard, andCatherine Dior.[3] When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris.[4]
Dior's family had hoped he would become a diplomat, but Dior was interested in art.[5] To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each (US$2 in 2024 dollars[6]). In 1928, he left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery, where he and a friend sold art by the likes ofPablo Picasso. Alongside managing his art gallery, Dior cultivated friendships with influential artists, including Picasso,Salvador Dalí,Jean Cocteau, andAlberto Giacometti. Immersed in this creative environment, Dior drew inspiration from their work, which shaped his later approach in fashion design.[7] The gallery closed three years later, following the deaths of Dior's mother and brother, as well as financial trouble during theGreat Depression that resulted in his father losing control of the family business.[8][9] Dior had no choice but to find another source of income.[9]
In search of work, Dior again created and sold fashion sketches. Those sketches were discovered by fashion designerRobert Piguet.[9] From 1937, Dior was employed by Piguet, who gave him the opportunity to design for three collections.[10][11] Dior later said that "Robert Piguet taught me the virtues of simplicity through which true elegance must come."[12][13] One of his original designs for Piguet, a day dress with a short, full skirt that was in his collection called "Cafe Anglais", was particularly well received.[10][11] Whilst working for Piguet, Dior worked alongsidePierre Balmain, and was succeeded as house designer byMarc Bohan – who would, in 1960, become head of design for Christian Dior Paris.[11] Dior left Piguet when he was called up for military service.[4]
In 1942, when Dior left the army, he joined the fashion house ofLucien Lelong, where he and Balmain were the primary designers. For the duration ofWorld War II, Dior, as an employee of Lelong, designed dresses for the wives ofNazi officers andFrench collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, includingJean Patou,Jeanne Lanvin, andNina Ricci.[14][15] His sister, Catherine (1917–2008), a member of theFrench Resistance, was captured by theGestapo and sent to theRavensbrück concentration camp, where she was incarcerated until her liberation in May 1945.[16] In 1947, Dior named his debut fragranceMiss Dior in tribute to her.[17][18] The story of Dior’s life during WWII and the following few years is featured in the mini-seriesThe New Look.
Dior was known for being superstitious. He often consulted hisastrologer before making decisions, and his collections frequently featuredtalismanic symbols. He also carried a cluster of lucky charms with him, believing they brought him good fortune.[19] At a pivotal moment when industrialistMarcel Boussac offered six million francs to establish Maison Christian Dior, Dior accepted only after receiving approval from two separate clairvoyants.[20]
In 1946,Marcel Boussac, a successful entrepreneur, invited Dior to design forPhilippe et Gaston, a Paris fashion house launched in 1925.[21] Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand.[22] In 1946, with Boussac's backing, Dior founded his fashion house, ensuring exclusive control over the company and securing a third of all profits in addition to his salary.[20] The name of the line of his first collection, presented on 12 February 1947,[23] wasCorolle (literally the botanical termcorolla orcirclet of flower petals in English). Dior's debut collection included a launch of 90 garments displayed in outfits.[24] The phraseNew Look was coined for it byCarmel Snow, the editor-in-chief ofHarper's Bazaar.[4]
Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles that had been influenced by the wartime rationing offabric.[25] Despite being called "New," the Corolle line was clearly drawn from styles of theEdwardian era,[26][27][28] refining and crystallizing trends in skirt shape and waistline that had been burgeoning in high fashion since the late 1930s.[29][30][31] The house employedPierre Cardin as head of its tailoringatelier for the first three years of its existence,[32] and it was Cardin who designed one of the most popular of the Corolle ensembles, the 1947 Bar suit.[33]
Christian Dior Fall-Winter 1947 "Zig-Zag" Collection Dress (detail)
The "New Look" revolutionized women's dress, reestablishedParis as the centre of the fashion world afterWorld War II,[34][35] and made Dior a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decade.[36] Dior's collection was an inspiration to many women post-war and helped them regain their love for fashion.[9] Dior believed that fashion was more than clothing; it was an art form and a continuation of French cultural heritage. He described maintaining the tradition of fashion as 'an act of faith,' a way to preserve the mystery and beauty that fashion brought to society.[20] Each season featured a newly titled Dior "line," in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would be trumpeted in the fashion press:[37] the Envol[38][39] and Cyclone/Zigzag lines[40] in 1948; the Trompe l'Oeil[41][42] and Mid-Century lines[43] in 1949; the Vertical[44][45] and Oblique lines[46][47] in 1950; the Oval[48][49] and Longue/Princesse[50][51] lines in 1951; the Sinueuse[52] and Profilėe[53][54] lines in 1952; the Tulipe[55][56] and Vivante/Cupola lines[57][58] in 1953; the Muguet/Lily of the Valley line[59] and H-Line[60] in 1954; the A-Line[61][62][63] and Y-Line[64] in 1955; the Flèche/Arrow/F-Line[65][66] and Aimant/Magnet line[67] in 1956; and the Libre/Free[68] and Fuseau/Spindle lines[69][70] in 1957, followed by successorYves Saint Laurent's Trapeze line in 1958.[71][72]
Dior's last collections, such as the “Libre” and “Fuseau” lines, marked a shift toward a more fluid, relaxed silhouette, distancing from the structured designs of earlier years. These changes reflected Dior's response to the era's evolving social dynamics, foreshadowing styles that would become iconic in the late 1950s and 1960s.[73]
In 1955, 19-year-oldYves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Dior told Saint Laurent's mother in 1957 that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She indicated later that she was confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time, but he died later that year.[24]
Dior died of a third heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, on 24 October 1957 in the late afternoon while playing a game of cards.[74][75] He was survived by Jacques Benita, a North African singer three decades his junior, the last of a number of discreet male lovers.[76][77][78]
Dior was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1950. Dior was nominated for the1955 Academy Award forBest Costume Design in black and white for theTerminal Station directed byVittorio De Sica (1953). The design house of Christian Dior, represented by designer Yves St. Laurent,[79] was nominated in 1967 for aBAFTA for Best British Costume (Colour) forArabesque directed byStanley Donen (1966).[80] For the11th César Awards in 1986, Dior, represented by Marc Bohan who created costumes from Christian Dior's original designs,[81] was nominated for Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) for the 1985 filmBras de fer.[82]
^abMarly, Diana de (1990).Christian Dior. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 12.ISBN978-0-7134-6453-5.Dior designed three collections while at Piguet's, and the most famous dress he created then was the Cafe Anglais
^Jayne Sheridan,Fashion, Media, Promotion: The New Black Magic (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), p. 44.
^Yuniya Kawamura,The Japanese Revolution in Fashion (Berg Publishers, 2004), page 46. As quoted in the book, Lelong was a leading force in keeping the French fashion industry from being forcibly moved to Berlin, arguing, "You can impose anything upon us by force, but Paris couture cannot be uprooted, neither as a whole or in any part. Either it stays in Paris, or it does not exist. It is not within the power of any nation to steal fashion creativity, for not only does it function quite spontaneously, also it is the product of a tradition maintained by a large body of skilled men and women in a variety of crafts and trades." Kawamura explains that the survival of the French fashion industry was critical to the survival of France, stating, "Export of a single dress by a leading couturier enabled the country to buy ten tons of coal, and a liter of perfume was worth two tons of petrol" (page 46).
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1946-1956".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. pp. 180–181.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior's New Look was still relying on old-fashioned underpinnings like boned corsetry ... Fashion ... reviv[ed] the mock-Edwardian style first presented in the late thirties. ... [Dior's] tighter waists, longer, fuller skirts and more pronounced hips were in fact the maximization of an old style
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1947".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 194.ISBN0-670-80172-0.[T]he trend towards longer skirts, smaller waists and feminine lines had begun in the late thirties and was seen in America in the early forties; hence Dior was not the originator of this mode, but its rejuvenator and popularist.
^Snow, Carmel (1948). "Fashion and Dress".1948 Britannica Book of the Year: A Record of the March of Events of 1947. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 321....[Christian Dior's] designs...crystallized and dramatized a trend that had started before World War II, but was interrupted by the exigencies of wartime conservation.
^Cunningham, Bill (1 March 1988). "Fashionating Rhythm".Details.VI (8). New York, NY: Details Publishing Corp.: 121.ISSN0740-4921.Each of the major fashion changes that mark a season is the result of a series of creative designers adding essential elements to the overall picture. The eventual credit for the genius is often given to the designer who articulated the look with commercial success, such as Dior achieved with his 1947 New Look, although it had been seen in small prototypes at Balenciaga in the early Forties and at other Paris houses just before the war.
^"Cardin First Struck Gold with Suit Made for Dior".The New York Times: 22. 27 August 1958. Retrieved5 April 2023.Cocteau and Berard...introduced...Cardin to [Dior,] who was...preparing his first fashion collection...Cardin designed, cut, and made a coat and a suit. He showed them to Dior, who...enrolled him on his team....Cardin spent three...years at Dior...
^"Cardin First Struck Gold with Suit Made for Dior".The New York Times: 22. 27 August 1958. Retrieved5 April 2023....Cardin...designed one of the most successful models...a suit called 'Bar,' which buyers the world over bought.
^Morris, Bernadine (14 April 1981)."How Paris Kept Position in Fashion".The New York Times: B19. Retrieved4 April 2022.Dior's bombshell brought manufacturers as well as store buyers rushing back to the City of Light as they sought to interpret his inspirational designs for their own clients....Throughout the 1950s, Paris was acclaimed as the source of fashion, and Dior's success helped stave off the development of other independent style centers for at least a decade.
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1948-1959".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 204.ISBN0-14-004955-X.Women obeyed Paris because of Christian Dior.
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1948-49".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 221.ISBN0-14-004955-X....Dior produces his 'envol' line, superimposing an angle of fullness upon an arrow-thin sheath.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1948".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 200.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior introduced the 'Envol' line, which featured jutting wings and accentuated back interest.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1948".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 202.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior's autumn collection was entitled 'Zig Zag'. It emphasized an asymmetrical line...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1949".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 205.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior showed...an ample silhouette, with soft bulk in the skirt or torso, neatly belted in. This was an extension of his New Look. He used trompe-l'oeil devices...
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 170.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023.In his Trompe l'oeil collection, Dior used all sorts of tricks to make busts look wider...[H]e put flying panels or pleats on nearly every skirt; when standing still, the figure looked slender and lean, but with movement the panels fluttered and flew.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1950".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 209.ISBN0-670-80172-0.The designers of the most uncompromising sheaths were Dior, with his 'Vertical' line...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1950".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 209.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior uses a stole cut in one with the jacket to achieve the oblique line on his grey flannel suit.
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 171.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023.The Oval line[:]...[e]very edge was rounded: suits hugged the body...; shoulders...smoothed into sleeves...; and hips and breasts were gently molded. Sleeves...curved at the top...Dior...used a simple mandarin neck-band – and jackets were rounded off at the front....He introduced a new, snug bolero jacket that...stopped just below the bust.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1951-52".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 227.ISBN0-14-004955-X.This is Dior's first collection without stiffened and padded underlinings, and he launches his immediately successful 'princess' line with dresses fitted through the midriff, waist unmarked.
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 171.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023....[T]he Long line was soon christened the Princess line...[F]or the Princess line, the waist...stayed where it was...[T]he illusion of a high waist was given by...putting short bolero jackets...over dresses, or by placing a seam under the bust..., or by attaching a half-belt high up across the back...Skirts were fractionally longer to emphasize this long line...{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 171.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023....[T]he Profile line...was sharper and more defined...[T]he clothes were simpler...and cut to outline the body in a dramatic way....[H]e invented a...skirt...constructed to jut out over the hips.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1952".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 219.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior's jutting 'Profile'-line dress..., which stands out as two points of a square at the front and two at the back.
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1953".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 230.ISBN0-14-004955-X.Dior reintroduces padding over the bust with his 'tulip' line...
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1953".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 223.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior showed his 'Tulip' line, the long body rounding out over the bust and shoulders in petal-shaped curves.
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 172.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023.Dior called his Autumn Collection the Cupola, or Dome, line; there were wide, barrel-shaped coats and jackets with exaggeratedly round shoulders,...dresses with full busts and bell skirts, and a...rounded 'bustle' back for evening dresses...Princess dresses...with waists less marked...He raised the hemline by two inches...{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1953".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 224.ISBN0-670-80172-0.The headline news from Paris this autumn was Dior's skirt – some 16 inches from the ground....Dior offset the rise in hemline by raising the bustline to create an unbroken line,...giving an illusion of length.
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 172.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023.[Dior] called [his spring collection] his Lily of the Valley line. There were relaxed...suits with pleated skirts and short, sailor-collared jackets....The waist was less emphasized than ever before.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1954".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 228.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior's 'H' line suggested 'the tapering figure of a young girl' by increasing the distance between the hips and the bust....His dresses featured...bodices...which flattened the bust...
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1955".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 239.ISBN0-14-004955-X.Dior produces his new A line, a triangle widened from a small head and shoulders to a full pleated or stiffened hem.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1955".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. p. 230.ISBN0-670-80172-0.Dior evolved last year's 'H' line into the 'A' line, which was commercially successful and widely adopted. The 'A' line...flared out into wide triangles from narrow shoulders.
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 172.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023.The A line and its predecessor, the H line, were revolutionary. They marked a complete U-turn in fashion away from the nipped-in waists and full skirts of the New Look to a sleeker, almost waistless shape...{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Radieva, Krasimira (2 March 2019)."An Investigation of the Silhouettes of Christian Dior".Artte.7 (3): 172.doi:10.15547/artte.2019.03.002 (inactive 11 July 2025).ISSN1314-8796. Retrieved23 May 2023....[T]he Arrow line...showed two new versions of the high waist that he had loved since his Princesse line....[T]here were...jackets...chopped off above the waist to show the belt of the dress underneath, and...loose cut jackets caught in with a belt or sash well above the waist and worn over slim skirts.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Inglis-Jones, Kay (3 February 1956)."Fashion Trends Abroad, Paris: Christian Dior's 'F' Line".The New York Times: F20....[W]ith his new 'Ligne Fleche' (Arrow Line)[,...t]he letter 'F,' standing for 'fleche' and 'femme,' takes the place of last season's 'Y' line. The new line is straight and high-waisted, with arrow points giving new cut, new draping and interest to sleeves, sleeve mountings and high bust detail. The big news is that princess lines have disappeared, replaced by the two-piece dress...
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1956-57".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 242.ISBN0-14-004955-X....Dior's last collection leaves a legacy, the waistless shift or chemise dress that narrows toward the hem,...called the 'spindle'...
^Blackwell, Betsy Talbot (1958). "Fashion".The American Peoples Encyclopedia Yearbook: Events and Personalities of 1957. Chicago, IL, USA: Spencer Press, Inc. p. 316....Paris, led by Christian Dior, ushered in the shift....A dress that bypassed the waist completely, it was actually the climax to a long-evolving 'relaxed look' that was everywhere gaining favor.
^Howell, Georgina (1978). "1958".In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 246.ISBN0-14-004955-X.
^Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1958".Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, The Penguin Group. pp. 251–252.ISBN0-670-80172-0.
^Martin, Richard (Richard Harrison) (1996).Christian Dior. Internet Archive. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Distributed by H.N. Abrams.ISBN978-0-87099-822-5.
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