Christian dior mini biography template
CHRISTIAN DIOR: THE MAN WHO RULED THE WORLD
For the first 42 years of his life, Christian Dior could be seen as the classic underachiever and dilettante who appeared to drift through life without any apparent ambition to do anything very radical. And yet, as the creator of the New Look in 1947, he not only changed fashion but, more importantly, changed how it was to be perceived by ordinary men and women in the second half of the 20 century, up to, and including, our attitudes even today.
Plump, apparently timorous and shy, softly spoken Dior appeared to fit none of the stereotypes of the revolutionary. In fact, he was described by Cecil Beaton, without any malice, as “like a country doctor…modest as a sugar violet”, although he also noted that Dior was “a bourgeois with his feet well planted in the soil of reality”. Not surprising, considering that he was from Normandy stock and his father was a rich man whose fortune was based on the manufacture of chemicals and fertilisers.
And it was to be expected that Dior would lead the life of a rich man’s son, which he did when he was young. There was little talk of work for him until the crash of 1929 and the subsequent loss of everything the family owned over just a few days. Up to that point, Dior’s life had been charmed. He moved between the family home and the Dior house in Paris, enjoying drifting through life as a young man with a little money could comfortably do before the collapse of Wall Street, although always in the back of his mind was the prediction by a fortune-teller as far back as 1919, when he was only 14, that women were lucky for him and through them he would achieve great success…
Dior studied in Paris after the First World War, but his great interests were music, literature and painting. Surprisingly, perhaps, his taste was for the avant-garde and the revolutionary, and he was part of a trendy group of privileged young people who considered themselves anarchists and pacifist Christian Ernest Dior was born on 21 January 1905, the second son of a wealthy family in Normandy. His father Maurice, an industrialist specialising in fertiliser, and mother, Madeleine, had five children in all, and lived in a clifftop villa called Les Rhumbs in the seaside town of Granville. This setting inspired Christian as a fashion designer in later life, especially his mother’s superbly kept garden that instilled in him a love of flowers. The Granville house became a haven for the Dior family during the First World War, apart from the eldest, Raymond, who fought in the trenches. He survived, although with severe shell shock. As for Christian, he followed his parents’ wishes and began training for a career as a diplomat, even though his true interests were in more artistic exploits. Leaving school in the late 1920s, he took over a small gallery – possible only with his father’s financial help – where he exhibited artists including Pablo Picasso. Everything changed for Dior after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. His father was ruined, and, in 1931, his mother passed away. Due to the family business folding, Dior was forced to close the gallery he’d opened in Paris with his father’s financial backing. He then got his first taste of the fashion industry by selling sketches. This got him an illustrator job at the magazine, Figaro Illustre, in 1935. Three years later, he became an assistant designer for the Swiss-born designer Robert Piguet. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Dior entered military service that ended not long afterwards with the armistice between France and Germany in June 1940. By 1941, he found himself in a different Paris, under Nazi occupation, and with a different designer, Lucien Lelong. 1935: Christian Dior sells fashion sketches in Par French fashion designer (1905–1957) This article is about the fashion designer. For the company, see Dior. Christian Ernest Dior (French:[kʁistjɑ̃djɔʁ]; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained prominence "on five continents in only a decade." Dior's skills led to his employment and design for various fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry during World War II. After the war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the "New Look". In 1947, the collection debuted featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt. The New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women's fashion. Throughout his lifetime, he won numerous awards for Best Costume Design. He died in 1957. Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France. He was the second of five children born to Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer (the family firm was Dior Frères), and his wife, formerly Madeleine Martin. He had four siblings: Raymond (father of Françoise Dior), Jacqueline, Bernard, and Catherine Dior. When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris. Dior's family had hoped he would become a diplomat, but Dior was interested in art. To make money, he sold his fashion sketches outside his house for about 10 cents each ($2 in 2024 dollars ). In 1928, he left school and received money from his father to finance a small art gallery, where he and a friend sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso. Alongside managing his art gallery, Dior cultivated friendships with influential artists, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti. Immersed in this creative environment, Christian Dior’s reputation as one of the most important couturiers of the twentieth century was launched in 1947 with his very first collection, in which he introduced the “New Look.” Featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt, the New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence in women’s fashion. After years of military and civilian uniforms, sartorial restrictions and shortages, Dior offered not merely a new look but a new outlook. Born and raised in Normandy, France, Dior moved with his parents to Paris when he was ten. After studying political science, he served in the military. His design career did not begin until 1935, when he returned to Paris and began selling sketches. The designer Robert Piguet hired him in 1938. During World War II, Dior served in the south of France, then returned again to Paris in 1941 and worked for Lucien Lelong at a much larger design house. In 1946, backed by textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac, he opened his own house. Dior helped to restore a beleaguered postwar Paris as the capital of fashion. Each of his collections throughout this period had a theme. Spring 1947 was “Carolle” or “figure 8,” a name that suggested the silhouette of the new look with its prominent shoulders, accentuated hips, and small waist. The spring 1953 collection, dubbed “Tulip,” featured an abundance of floaty, flowery prints. Spring 1955’s “A-line,” with its undefined waist and smooth silhouette that widened over the hips and legs, resembled a capital “A.” Some of Dior’s designs simulated Second Empire and other historical styles, but he was also creating menswear, trompe-l’oeil detailing, and soft-to-hard juxtapositions, making them part of the modern wardrobe. By his final collections, Dior, feeling the need for a more limber silhouette and lifestyle, was designing chemises, narrow tunics, and
Who was Christian Dior before his fashion career?
What was Christian Dior’s early career like?
Timeline: the fashion career of Christian Dior
Christian Dior
Early life
Christian Dior (1905–1957)