Dior exhibition in London: fabric for the museum

Dior was an exceptional talent. This was also clear to the collection administrators at the London Victoria & Albert Museum early on. Since the fifties, they bought drawings and designs of the French. But even in the largest collection of designs in the world, there was not enough material for Christian Dior England's "largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date," as curator Oriole Cullen writes.

500 objects, including 200 from haute couture, accessories, photographs, films, perfumes, make-up, drawings, magazines and personal belongings of the fashion designer, who died in 1957, are to show the influence of Dior (and his successors in avenue Montaigne ) to date on the fashion.

Of course, this is not possible without the iconic Bar Jacket. The fitted jacket in cream silk - combined with a calf-length black pleated skirt made of taffeta and batiste - is one of the most important and at the same time most popular Dior creations. The outfit is a symbol of what the press celebrated as a "New Look". Dior prefers to speak of "La Ligne Corolle" calyx: "gently arched shoulders, rounded chest lines, slender waists and wide cuffs like flower calyxes".

The clothes were a provocation. Unpretentious designs as an alternative to minimalist fashion during the war and in the years after. When everything was to be saved, the fashion designer sewed 25 meters of taffeta in a single dress. Dior wanted to give women back their femininity. They gratefully accepted his offer - if they could afford it.

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Outside of Paris, too, the lavish fashion Diors thrilled the upper classes. Some of his most famous customers come from the UK. The author Nancy Mitford about, or the ballerina Margot Fonteyn, especially Princess Margaret. The princess celebrated her 21st birthday in a white Dior dress, pictured by Cecil Beaton. The birthday portrait and dress of the aristocrat now hang in the part of the exhibition dedicated to "Dior in Britain".

"There is no other country in the world besides my native country, whose way of life I value so much," he once said. This is where curator Cullen and her London team start to make the exhibition more interesting to the local audience. The basis is the show "Christian Dior, Couturier du Rêve", shown in Paris in 2017.

There are other points of contact: Dior also commissioned English manufactories. Gloves by Dents, knitwear by Lyle and Scott, and jewelery by Mitchel Maer, one of the most prestigious goldsmiths of the mid-20th century.

The ten other sections deal with, among other things, the biography of the fashion designer, before he made his debut in 1947, curated legendary art exhibitions. After the gallery section, the focus will be on the great era of fashion photography, with images by Richard Avedon, Horst P. Horst, and Cecil Beaton. In addition, Dior's numerous sources of inspiration are dissected alongside art, such as the flower worlds of the family villa in Granville.

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And then of course there are the clothes. The model "Diablesse" from 1947: devilish red with turquoise belt, in the famous three-quarter length, with hourglass waist, wide swinging pleated skirt and shirt collar. Or the slender corsage robe from the Fall / Winter 2007 collection, dyed with watercolors in pink and a little yellow, wrapped in a single layer of tulle, then black appliqués, like generous strokes of a quick sketch: a drawn drape over the actual dress.

It does not come from Christian Dior, but from John Galliano, the fourth of six great Master successors, who are also honored. The others are Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, Raf Simons and since 2016 Maria Grazia Chiuri.

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The Italian is in the 73-year company history the first woman at the head of the fashion house. She is also the one who has shown in 15 collections how to give a feminist touch to Christian Dior's idea of ​​femininity ("the breast of a nymph, the waist of a sylphid"), that his style may be traditional, but never old-fashioned.

"Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams", Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 2nd of February to 14th of July 2019.