Every year there’s at least one must-see exhibit I urge people to see and if they have to, plan a special trip here to see it. In 2016 it was the Shchukin Collection, an exhibit, which showed one of the greatest art collections of the 19th century, owned by Russian collector Sergei Shchukin.
For 2017 it’s without question the Christian Dior, Couturier du Reve. Marking the 70th anniversary of the legendary fashion house, it’s an all out, grand celebration that is truly exhilarating and magical.
This is just not another fashion exhibit with a bunch of beautiful clothes; it traces in great detail the how the label started, evolved and ultimately became the powerhouse it is today.
Christian Dior was born in 1905 in Granville, France into a wealthy, upper class family. He had a keen eye for art and antiques and with backing from his father he opened an art gallery in 1928. Although the gallery was successful, Dior had to close it when his father went bankrupt after the Great Depression and could now longer invest in the gallery. Dior went on to become a fashion designer, learning his craft with two couture houses, Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong. In 1947, with an investment from the richest man in France, Marcel Boussac, Dior opened his own couture house. His first collection took the fashion world by storm by creating a whole new form of dressing a woman’s body, with cinched waists, soft shoulders and accentuated bust line. It was coined The New Look by Harper’s Bazaar fashion editor Carmel Snow, and it made Dior instantaneously famous around the world for its bold yet feminine style. Dior and his New Look also put Paris back on the map as the center of the fashion world,after it lost its luster during WWII.
In addition to beauty, Dior was also about brains and business. The label grew to include shoes, perfume, jewelry and accessories and exporting its glamorous look internationally. At one point, it accounted for part of the gross annual product of France. Things took a tragic turn in 1957 when Christian Dior died of a heart attack at age 52 and the house tapped a very young but talented designer, Yves Saint Laurent. After a badly received collection a few years later featuring leather jackets and street style clothes, Saint Laurent was fired. A succession of other noted designers followed including Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and today’s director, the first female, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
In the massive 30,000 square foot exhibit taking over most of the museum, Christian Dior, Couturier du Reve, extensively covers the original collections of Christian Dior followed by a series of rooms by the other designers with over 300 designs.
The curation of the exhibit is exquisite, ensconcing the visitor in a world of beauty, inspiration, flowers, art, and of course, stunning clothes. Densely packed in the beginning with artifacts from the personal collection of Christian Dior including photos, postcards, drawings and other tidbits but later on it opens up to display mostly the clothes.
My favorite part was the vitrines with collages of dresses, miniature dress forms with miniature outfits, hats, shoes, jewelry and gloves, all arranged in different color palates ranging from white, to blue, to yellow, to green, to red and to black.
So do what you have to- rob a bank, hire a babysitter for the kids, sell some stocks, tell the boss you have a French emergency- to see Christian Dior, Couturier du Reve.
Till January 7, 2018
Musee des Arts Decoratifs
107, rue de Rivoli, 75001
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/en/exhibitions/current-events-1322/musee-des-arts-decoratifs/christian-dior-couturier-du-reve
Make sure you buy tickets online or ahead of tome to avoid the lines.
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