DIOR: THEN AND NOW

The above photograph is by Norman Parkinson of a Christian Dior evening gown taken decades ago. Fast-forward almost sixty years and the House of Dior is still a Paris landmark as well as global fashion phenomenon. Pictures below show the silhouette and fabrics of today’s Dior pieces. Wouldn’t you say they’re almost replicas of the original?

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The creations coming out of the House of Dior have been so consistently ultra-fem through the years. Despite the fact Dior died in 1957 and the house has employed a succession of designers for many more years than the designer reigned in his own house (ten years), they’ve all stayed true to Dior’s trademark hourglass silhouette.

Conjour up any image of fashion pre-1947 and you’ll come up with a limited selection of dark colors, shorter skirts and silhouettes that took as few yards of fabric as a wartime shortage could afford. Once the war ended and restrictions lifted, a fashion-starved Paris changed overnight when Dior premiered his, Corolle Collection in February 1947. Then editor of Vogue, Carmel Snow, dubbed it, “The New Look.” And new it was. It seemed like ages since cinched waists sat atop suddenly voluminous skirts of which took yards of fabric and many petticoats to produce. We of later generations have embraced this look we associate with the 1950s. According to vintage dealers, almost anything from this era is in short supply

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I’d say these repros by Dior this season are as real and pure as the originals. Don’t you get the idea maybe the late, great Dior has been looking down upon and blessing each designer who succeeds the next in his Parisian House?