FRAGRANCE - MISS DIOR

"I have created this perfume to dress each woman in the scent of desire, and to see each of my dresses emerging from its bottle…" - Christian Dior

Miss Dior was launched in 1947 by Christian Dior, the same year of Diors first ever catwalk collection 'the new look'. Christian started his couture fashion house in late 1946 however his first collection did not appear until early 1947. Therefore officially speaking, the beginning of the fashion house was in 1947. 

Christian directed the people creating the perfume to make something that smells like love. This fragrance left Christian Dior as 'the man who left Paris smelling new'. This fragrance was released shortly after world war II, the scent went perfectly with Dior's 'new look' collection which he had just released. It made women dress more feminine and smell good after an awful era in time. Before world war II started there was the great depression from 1929, so in 1947 when Christian was releasing his fragrance although not many people could afford it at the time it gave them a scence of luxury. It was what everybody wanted, it made them feel like a woman, it was the ultimate smell of couture, it brought power to anybody who wore it. 

Dior sprinkled more than 1 litre of 'miss Dior' around the french Dior store every single week, which was a large cost considering not many people could afford to buy the fragrance but it made people want to visit his shop. It also pushed people to save for the fragrance, because it went with the new evolution in fashion, if you had this fragrance you felt like royalty, everybody wants a bit of couture in their life, especially after years of battling war and money problems.

The name sounds extremely 'girly', when you hear miss Dior, that's incorrect. This scent went without a name for some time, Christian just couldn't decide on something he loved enough. Until one day his sister Catherine (who had not long been released from being imprisoned in a concentration camp) came to mind. He named his fragrance miss Dior after his sister Catherine Dior, the scent itself is quite strong, it is based on a green floral accord. It also has a wood bottom to it, it was the ultimate smell of 'new pairs' to go with Christians 'new look'.

The smell of MISS DIOR

 

patchouli

citrus

white floral

warm spicy

rose

DIOR - THE EARLY LIFE OF THE BRAND

DIOR - THE EARLY LIFE OF THE BRAND


While this was going on, Diors younger sister Catherine was captured by Gestapo after joining the French Resistance. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp but luckily she survived. In 1947 Dior released his fragrance MISS DIOR as a tribute to his sister.

First bottle of Miss Dior, 1947

The year before this in 1946 he founded his fashion house 'Christian Dior' at 30 avenue Montaigne Paris on the 16th December (WHICH IS STILL IN USE TODAY). He was backed by a cotton fabric magnate MARCEL BOUSSAC who was at the time one of the worlds most wealthiest men. Officially speaking Dior's fashion house didn't begin until February 12th 1947 as that is when he showed his first collection at his first couture show famously known as THE NEW LOOK.

Dior was known to be very superstitious, each collection his created included a coat which would be named after his place of birth, Granville. His supersition grew with age, in each of his fashion shows at least one model would wear a bunch of flowers, these flowers where lilies of the valley as that was his favourite flower. Before the beginning of every couture show he refused to begin without seeking information from his tarot card reader.

In 1948 Dior Established a house on the corner of 5th avenue and 57th street in New York. It was the first of its kind, this house was a luxuary ready-to-wear fashion house. This was also the year that he set up 'Dior Parfums'. Beginning with 'Miss Dior' and following with 'Diorama' a year later.

In 1949 Dior began to put the full outfits together, he realised the importance of the complete look. Once deciding that famous 'NEW LOOK' which he released could not be complete without the perfect Dior shoes and accessories, he began to create them. Along with a business partner 'JACQUES ROUET' and licensed his name to a large range of luxury accessories. He began manufacturing shoes, gloves, hats, furs, stockings, ties and perfume in regional centers across the globe. This was highly criticized by the french chamber of couture, they said the Dior had made haute couture look cheap. However Dior made so much profit off it and slowly all the fashion houses began to follow his footsteps.

DIOR - EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR II

DIOR - EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR II

Around 7 years after Dior began working for the magazine he became a design assistant when he was hired by Paris couturier Robert Piguet. Piguet was one of Christians friends who had recently opened his own fashion house. Unfortunately this only lasted one year as the following year world war II began. At this time Dior left his creative skills behind and went into the army as a farmer, helping farmers wife's tend their land.

Dior was released from the army and made his return from the south of France to Paris in 1941. In 1942 he began working for Lucien Lelongs couture fashion house as a primary designer along side Pierre Balmain. During the remaining years of the war Dior helped create designs which dressed both the Nazi officers and French collaborators, this was their way of preserving the fashion industry as well as keeping peace. The reasons behind keeping the fashion industry where both economic and artistic. He was also designing for the wealthiest women in the world.

Lucien Lelongs, 1945

Lucien Lelongs, 1942

Lucien Lelongs, 1946

DIOR - THE DOWNFALL FOR CHRISTIAN

DIOR - THE DOWNFALL

Dior had dreams of becoming an architect, but he had an amazing talent in fashion illustrations. The art gallery was the start of his success however it didn't go the way he had expected. In 1931 after around 3 years of it being open he was forced to close his art gallery for many devastating reasons. During this year his mother and elder brother passed away and his fathers business collapsed, with a family full of grief and a lack of money Christian was more determined than ever to achieve success. The great depression which went on from around 1929 until 1940 had a massive impact of the collapse of his fathers business and made it more difficult for Christian to achieve the success he wanted at the time.

After the close of Diors gallery he became very poorly with tuberculosis and his friends sent him for treatment. When he returned to Paris he found himself with no income and no place to live. One of Diors friends took him in and let him live there and Dior went back to selling his sketches to make money. This was in fact after he sold his last canvas 'Le plan de Paris'. However instead of selling his sketches for pocket money, he was selling them so he had the ability to make money to live off. He had a great love in fashion illustrations, he began selling these illustrations to the magazine 'Figaro Illustre'. The public went crazy for his hat sketches, which from the pictures below (dated years after he became a designer) you can tell why. They are amazing!

The blue hat, 1949

Mrs Jean Charpentier, 1947

DIOR - THE EARLY DAYS OF CHRISTIAN DIOR

DIOR - THE EARLY DAYS



In 1905 Christian was the second born into a growing family, with 5 siblings the family was lucky their father was a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer. However because of his fathers success, there was high expectations of Christian becoming a diplomat.

Aged just 5 years old Christian and his family moved across France to start a new life in Paris. As Christian grew older he found a love in sketching, he used to sell them outside of his house on the streets of Paris for extra pocket money, he made around 10 cents per sketch. Although he loved the creative world, he followed his fathers wishes and studied political sciences at university. Once he graduated he managed to persuade his father to let him open a small art gallery, his father agreed to fund the gallery with the promise that Christian would not put the family name above the door. This gallery began selling work from artists such as very famous PABLO PICASSO, JEAN COCTEAU, MAX JACOB and GEORGES BRAQUE.

Jean Cocteau

Pablo Picasso

Max Jacob

Georges Braque

DIOR - THE DESIGNER STORIES

Yves Saint Laurent made his first debut in 1955, at 19 years old he became Diors design assistant. By 1957 Dior seen so much potential in Saint Laurent that he met with his mother Lucieene Mathieu-Saint Laurent to inform her that he had in fact chosen her son to succeed him at Dior. At this point Christian was 52 years old so Saint Laurent's mother was confused as to why he was making this choice so in advance. 

Dior, 1955

Dior, 1955

Christian Dior suffered his 3rd fatal heart attack not too long after having the meeting with Saint Laurent's mother which he was leaving his house. He sadly passed away on October 24 1957, there was over 2,500 people who attended his funeral, ranging from famous clients to all of his staff.

Jacques Rouet, who Christian originally began working with on the accessories range panicked and needed to stabilise the label as quick as possible as it was his business too. So Yves Saint-Laurent, now 21 years old, became the artistic director of Dior.

Then the slim look came about; Saint Laurent needed to leave his position at Dior when he was conscripted into the army. He was replaced by Marc Bohan who was an incredible success for Dior, he defined a new era for Dior by creating the slim look. This look was basically Diors original ironic shape however with a modernised silhouette.

Marc Bohan for Dior, 1963

Marc Bohan for Dior, 1963

The financial owners of Dior 'THE BOUSSAC GROUP' filed for bankruptcy in 1978, everything was sold to 'WILLOT GROUP'. In 1985 BERNARD ARNAULT became chairman, CEO and director of Dior, he saved the company and made it into the megabrand it is today. 

In 1989 GIANFRANCO FERRE replaced Marc Bohan as stylistic director of Dior; he stayed in this position for 8 years. He opened a store in hawaii and his first haute couture collection was awarded the De d'Or.

In 1997 Arnault (who was still in charge) decided he wanted British designer JOHN GALLIANO to take over Ginafranco. Arnault went out to say that even though he would of preferred a french man, talent has no nationality. So there it was, Galliano as head designer of Dior, everything was going great, he was bringing the company a lot of success. 

DIOR - 

DIOR - S/S 2002

DIOR - A/W 2002/2003

DIOR - 2003

DIOR - 2004

DIOR - 2005/2006

DIOR - 2007

DIOR - 2008/2009

DIOR - 2010

DIOR - 2011

DIOR - 2011 - JOHN GALLIANOS LAST EVER SHOW

"Galliano has a creative talent very close to that of Christian Dior. He has the same extraordinary mixture of romanticism, feminism and modernity that symbolised Monsieur Dior. In all of his creations - his suits, his  dresses - one finds similarities to the Dior style." - Arnault on Galliano.

In 2011 Galliano was fired from Dior, it was the result of events which shocked the world. Galliano was battling an alcohol problem and one late night when he was sat outside of a bar incredibly drunk an Italian couple asked if he has blue eyes and blonde hair. Gallianos reply was somewhat racist, inappropriate and incredibly offensive. 

This had him fired from Dior within 5 days of the incident, Galliano was fired just before his new collection was shown in Paris. However with Galliano now in rehab, Dior only showed 19 looks from the collection which is less than half than they would usually show. They didn't want it to be a memorable catwalk. 

Gallinos design direction BILL GAYTEN then moved straight up to head designer to cover the job until Dior could find somebody else. The fashion house was in more panic to find somebody right now than they where when Christian himself passed away. There was now so much more demand on the brand and because of the recent antics from Galliano the brand had to come back with a bang, it was a win or loose, if they did not come back with the right attitude it could be the end of Dior. 

After over a year of rumors RAF SIMONS took over artistic director in the house. From then until present (2014) he is still the man behind the Dior designs, although Galliano is putting in a fight to come back to Dior. Only time will tell!

Dior - fall 2014

 

DIOR

What is DIOR?

DI - OR ... DIOR comes from the french origin, the meaning of the name is related to 'D'Or' which has the meaning of GOLDEN. 

The expression of the name DIOR -

1 > People with this name tend to initiate events, to be leaders rather than followers, with powerful personalities. They tend to be focused on specific goals, experience a wealth of creative new ideas, and have the ability to implement these ideas with efficiency and determination. They tend to be courageous and sometimes aggressive. As unique, creative individuals, they tend to resent authority, and are sometimes stubborn, proud, and impatient.

2> People with this name have a deep inner desire for a stable, loving family or community, and a need to work with others and to be appreciated.

This links well with the history of the original owner, CHRISTIAN DIOR.  

Dior is a high fashion brand which dates back to 1946 when CHRISTIAN DIOR (the original owner of Dior) established his own french fashion house.