8 october 1946 â 8 october 2016
8 OCTOBER 1946 – 8 OCTOBER 2016 It was seventy years ago to the day. We take a look back at the creation of the house of Dior.
© Gérard Uféras
Christian Dior had already been many things by the time he met Marcel Boussac, the French textiles giant, in July 1946. After having been a gallerist and an illustrator, at the age of forty-one he was now a designer at Lucien Lelong, but he had greater ambitions. To the businessman he proposed a new conception of haute couture, destined to dress a privileged and select clientele. And it was then
exactly seventy years that the two men established a groundbreaking agreement by officially creating the Christian Dior company. Whether by chance or superstition, it was on October 8th, 1946, in Paris’ 8th arrondissement, that Christian Dior legally registered the couture house in his name. The date marks a starting point in its history but also a promise of infinity, as symbolized by the number 8. The rich industrialist provided the business’ capital but it was the couturier who was the one steering the ship. This was the beginning of a new era: that of designer fashion. Exercising his carte blanche, Christian Dior needed to rapidly set about selecting a building, decorator, teams, ateliers, models, and his closest collaborators. He set up his studio with an unusual level of luxury: he recruited eighty-five people, of whom sixty where seamstresses, and surrounded himself with a team of familiar faces. He named Raymonde Zehnacker – “his second self” – studio director. Then Marguerite Carré, the former première d'atelier at Jean Patou, came on board with her best workers. Named technical director, she was the one who translated the couturier's sketches into clothes. Lastly, Mitzah Bricard, who was both Christian Dior’s muse and artistic advisor, while his childhood friend Suzanne Luling directed the haute couture salons. “High-class chiefs of staff” was how Christian Dior would later describe them. On December 16th, 1946, the couturier, along with his team, inaugurated the nearly-ready hôtel particulier at 30 Avenue Montaigne which had fascinated him for years. He charged Victor Grandpierre with its decoration in a neo-Louis-XVI style in pale gray and white shades. The countdown to the first show had begun. Amid all the hustle and bustle, Dior would have to manage to maintain a relatively untroubled mindset in order to design his first collection for spring-summer, composed of the lines Corolle and En 8 – in homage to his newly lucky number – defining a new silhouette that would become, at the presentation on 12 February 1947, an historic event. Christian created Dior which, on that one fateful day, would become an unstoppable phenomenon revolutionizing fashion and the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
© Gérard Uféras
Christian Dior had already been many things by the time he met Marcel Boussac, the French textiles giant, in July 1946. After having been a gallerist and an illustrator, at the age of forty-one he was now a designer at Lucien Lelong, but he had greater ambitions. To the businessman he proposed a new conception of haute couture, destined to dress a privileged and select clientele. And it was then
exactly seventy years that the two men established a groundbreaking agreement by officially creating the Christian Dior company. Whether by chance or superstition, it was on October 8th, 1946, in Paris’ 8th arrondissement, that Christian Dior legally registered the couture house in his name. The date marks a starting point in its history but also a promise of infinity, as symbolized by the number 8. The rich industrialist provided the business’ capital but it was the couturier who was the one steering the ship. This was the beginning of a new era: that of designer fashion. Exercising his carte blanche, Christian Dior needed to rapidly set about selecting a building, decorator, teams, ateliers, models, and his closest collaborators. He set up his studio with an unusual level of luxury: he recruited eighty-five people, of whom sixty where seamstresses, and surrounded himself with a team of familiar faces. He named Raymonde Zehnacker – “his second self” – studio director. Then Marguerite Carré, the former première d'atelier at Jean Patou, came on board with her best workers. Named technical director, she was the one who translated the couturier's sketches into clothes. Lastly, Mitzah Bricard, who was both Christian Dior’s muse and artistic advisor, while his childhood friend Suzanne Luling directed the haute couture salons. “High-class chiefs of staff” was how Christian Dior would later describe them. On December 16th, 1946, the couturier, along with his team, inaugurated the nearly-ready hôtel particulier at 30 Avenue Montaigne which had fascinated him for years. He charged Victor Grandpierre with its decoration in a neo-Louis-XVI style in pale gray and white shades. The countdown to the first show had begun. Amid all the hustle and bustle, Dior would have to manage to maintain a relatively untroubled mindset in order to design his first collection for spring-summer, composed of the lines Corolle and En 8 – in homage to his newly lucky number – defining a new silhouette that would become, at the presentation on 12 February 1947, an historic event. Christian created Dior which, on that one fateful day, would become an unstoppable phenomenon revolutionizing fashion and the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
