Dior Couture. Patrick Demarchelier

The Russian spirit has inhabited the House of Dior since its creation in 1947. As a young man, Christian Dior was enthralled by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Passionately interested in architecture and constructivism, particularly the work of Rodchenko, he went to Moscow when he was twenty-six. In 1959, the House of Dior organised a spectacular show for the Russian public. Following the «Inspiration Dior» exhibition at the Pushkin Museum in 2011, Dior is now presenting «Dior Couture Patrick Demarchelier», the photographer’s tribute to the most prestigious Couture House in the world.

When Christian Dior showed his first collection on February 12, 1947, the dream of this lover of art, gardens and society balls was to give women back the «joie de vivre», femininity and elegance they had been deprived of during the war.

His vision of the flower-woman, with «soft shoulders, an ample bust, a tightly nipped waist and a skirt as wide as a corolla» was an aesthetic revolution. The Dior style, immediately dubbed the «New Look,» created a sensation unique in fashion history. Constructing his garments like an architect, he moulded them on the curves of the female body to enhance and stylise them. Women all over the world could now dream of becoming the elegant, radiantly feminine Dior woman, leaving «a trail of desires in her wake.»

Christian Dior’s profound love of femininity and desire to always offer women more beauty and happiness, continues to be pursued by his successors and by the prodigious skills of the Dior Haute Couture ateliers.

When the fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier discovered the Dior ateliers in 2008, he was enthralled by this unique heritage of knowledge and skills, and the infinite care lavished in creating such majestic femininity.

The Dior that Patrick Demarchelier discovered in each splendid creation dazzled him and, running like a constant watermark through them, he saw the tireless inventiveness of a peerless couturier. Christian Dior’s imagination and love of colours destined him for an artistic career. Prevented from studying art by his parents, he decided to open a gallery in 1928 to promote the artists he most admired. When he was only twenty-three, he discovered several of the greatest artists of the 20th century such as Picasso, Dufy and Braque. A true visionary, from 1928 he showed Dalí, Giacometti, De Chirico, Ernst, Leonor Fini, Alexander Calder and Christian Bérard.

The sublime photographs in the «Dior Couture Patrick Demarchelier» exhibition were taken over a two-year period all over the world. They pay tribute to the collections of the legendary House of Dior from 1947 to the present day and, like the couturier’s creations, are works of art in their own right. From Christian Dior himself to his latest inspired successor, Raf Simons, all of the House of Dior’s creations have the same fascinating timelessness and eternal magic.

The world of Dior Haute Couture is highlighted by six emblematic themes — the Dior Line, the Dior Garden, the Dior Ateliers, the 18th Century, From Pink to Red, the Dior Ball — in a sublime cinematography transcending time, geography and decors, in which each dress tells its own fascinating story.

This is the story of the unique vision of one man, Christian Dior, the greatest couturier of all time. «Dior Couture Patrick Demarchelier» pays tribute to his genius.