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Christian Dior

French fashion designer (1905–1957)

Christian Dior (21 January 1905 – 23 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior, but now owned by LVMH.

The "Bar" suit, Corolle, 1947, as displayed in Moscow in 2011.

Quotes

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  • It is unforgivable to do what one doesn't love especially if one succeeds.
    • Christian Dior The opulence of the groundbreaking “New Look” collection of 1947. p. 36, as cited in: Judith Miller (2008). Costume Jewellery, p. 36
  • I'm a mild man, but I have violent tastes.
    • In: "Dior," in LIFE, ‎Vol. 24, nr. 9 (1 March 1948), p. 48
  • I know very well the women. The short skirt was never a good fashion — very vulgar. The American women will accept the new fashions. You can never stop the fashions.
    • In: Malcolm Perrine McNair, ‎Harry L. Hansen (1949) Problems in Marketing. p. 165
  • My dream is to save women from nature.
    • In: Newsweek, Vol. 50, Nr 19-26, (1957), p. 44
  • Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40, after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascination can continue indefinitely.
    • in: Philippines Free Press Vol. 62, Nr. 14-26 (1969), p. 59
  • [Black is] the most popular and the most convenient and the most elegant of all colors.
    • As quoted in: Fakiko Fukai et al. (2004) Fashion in colors, p. 195
  • I wanted to be considered a good craftsman. I wanted my dresses to be constructed like buildings, molded to the curves of the female form, stylizing its shape.
  • Colour is what gives jewels their worth. They light up and enhance the face. Nothing is more elegant than a black skirt and sweater worn with a sparkling multi-stoned necklace.
  • Bright reds – scarlet, pillar-box red, crimson or cherry – are very cheerful and youthful.
    • In: Maria Doulton "Simply brilliant: Cher Dior lights up Paris"
  • Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40 after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascination can continue indefinitely.
  • We were emerging from the period of war, of uniforms, of women-soldiers built like boxers. I drew women-flowers, soft shoulders, fine waists like liana and wide skirts like corolla.
  • In Shirley Miles O'Donnol American Costume 1915-1970: A Source Book for the Stage Costumer, Indiana University Press, 22 August 1989, p. 153
  • Women, with their sure instincts, realized that my intention was to make them not just more beautiful but also happier.
    • In Marie France Pochna, Christian Dior Dior, Universe/Vendome, 1996, p. 4
  • In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable.
  • A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting.
  • My mother whom I adored, secretly wasted away and died of grief…; her death…marked me for life.
    • In: Marie France Pochna "Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New", p. 48
  • I used to have frequent arguments with my father which ended in doors slamming and the ultimate expletive ‘Filthy bougeois’
    • In: Marie France Pochna "Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New", p. 51
    • Due to his leaning toward Bolshevism
  • We went from losses to goods seized by creditors, while continuing to organize surrealist or abstract exhibitions…
    • In: Marie France Pochna, "Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New", p. 53
    • In September 1932 when there was world wide economic crisis
  • I think I would be more suited to the couture side of the business!
    • In: Marie France Pochna, "Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New", p. 57
    • When his interview with Lucien Long failed to get him an employment in an office job.

The Little Dictionary of Fashion, 1954

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Christian Dior. The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Woman, 1954/2007

  • Much has been written about fashion, in all its aspects, but i do not think any couturier has ever before attempted to compile a dictionary on the subject.
  • Many people dismiss haute couture as being something that is only for those who are very wealthy... simplicity, good taste, and grooming are the three fundamentals of good dressing and these do not cost money.
    • As cited in: Alison Behnke (2012) The Little Black Dress and Zoot Suits, p. 18

About Christian Dior

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Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New

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In: Marie France Pochna [Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New, Arcade Publishing, 1996

  • The Dior display suddenly made me nostalgic for France. What was before me was so clearly more refined than the other displays. And it stood out in my memory. Later when I was given the chance to buy Christian Dior, I remembered White Plains and Bloomingdales. I have no doubt that unconsciously it had an effect on me.
  • Dior is that nimble genius unique to our age with the magical name - combining God and gold [dieu et or].
  • This was certainly at the root of my intense dislike of machinery, and my firm determination never to work in an office or anything of that nature.
    • His aversion for his father’s factories about which he was terrified. He was guided in all things by his mother. His senses were simulated by the floral, ornamental opulence of her world. P.11
  • Christian, however, was fortunate having a paternal grandmother who realized very early that this child was very different from his brothers and sisters, if only physically. Raymond was a fighter, Jacqueline a tomboy, and Bernard, who was gentle as a lamb, had an introverted side that caused concern. Christian on the other hand was lively and affectionate, interested in everything – and with such an imagination. He epitomized the wonderment of childhood.
    • In p. 13
  • His greatest delight was in dreaming up a new costume, a talent he displayed early on. .. One year he transformed his sister into King Neptune with a bodice made of shells and raffia skirt …Never without a notebook, he scribbled down ideas as they occurred to him.
    • In p. 13
  • He was very fond of his grandmother, who came to live not far from the family when she sold her home in Angers. She brought with her the handsome Napolean III drawing-room suite with empire chairs that went to furnish Christian’s favorite room, the parlor.
    • in, p. 13
  • Dior is like a big adolescent with old- fashioned shyness of as schoolboy and most charming in his childish awkwardness.
    • Michael Ciry on Dior as a young boy, in p. 20
  • With his rotund ecclesiastical side, Dior was like a cathedral, a repository of countless secrets no one else had access to.
  • He gave no sign of any great desire to persevere with music or painting, despite his obvious eye for the latter. The idea of creativity obsessed but not to the point of renouncing his spectator status.
    • In p. 36
  • Misfortune did not make him a poor man, and actually taught him a great deal.
    • Henry Sauguet, in p. 57
  • He gave no sign of any great desire to persevere with music or painting, despite his obvious eye for the latter. The idea of creativity obsessed but not to the point of renouncing his spectator status.
    • In p. 70
  • Come on, do it. You are good and I believe in you.
    • Jean Ozenne, in p. 60
    • When his cousin Jean Ozenne gave him break in his career and invited him to live in his house on Quai Henri IV with the most beautiful view of the Siene. Leter Ozenne had sold six of Christian’s paintings which a launch pad to his future career.
  • We were given a polished theatrical performance such as we had never seen in a couture house before
    • Bettina Bellard, in p. 135
    • The press review he received for his applauded orchestrated show of his ninety female outfits, giving the image of Paris reborn.
  • We were witness to a revolution in fashion and a revolution in showing fashion as well.
    • Carmel Snow of Harper’s Bazar office, in p. 135
  • It is quite a revolution, dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look. They are quite wonderful you know.
    • Carmel Snow in Harper’s Bazar office, in p. 135
    • This news and the show was hailed by the American and other foreign press as French press was on strike.
  • Magic...was what everyone wanted from Paris. Never has there been a moment more climatically right for a Napoleon, An Alexander the Great, a Caesar of Couture. Paris fashion was waiting to be seized and shaken and given direction. There has never been an easier or complete conquest than that of Christian Dior in 1947.
    • Carmel Snow, in p. 135
  • Every year Dior would present a new line – from Oval to Oblique to the Scissors look.
    • In P.170
  • In 1957, he was consecrated on the cover of Times. The Consensus was that the House of Dior was in a class of its own.
    • In p. 199
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