STARS IN DIOR

It may look like the set of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but it’s the childhood home of famed fashion designer Christian Dior. The Normandy house has been turned into a museum. It’s latest exhibit, Stars in Dior, takes a look back at the designer’s love affaire with cinema and the Hollywood icons who wore his creations until his death in 1957.
After World War II, film and fashion joined forces to create fantasy. Christian Dior, simply had to modify his haute couture designs to fit the Big Screen.
No Dior, No Marlene! Only a star like Dietrich could impose her choice of designer upon Hollywood producers. When working on films, Dior created much more than the expected fairytale gowns.
Fashion, like cinema, requires stage setting. From the beginning Dior paired his designs with a perfume, so as to set the scene daily. Today, 60 years later, the two worlds are even more intertwined.
It seems that film and advertising have been intertwined ever since the House of Dior started connecting the two. After collaborating on certain films and showing various fashion design, Dior started using top filmmakers for its own advertising campaigns. It chooses filmmakers for their creativity and unique esthetic and also casts the right actresses who go on to become muses of the brand.
The Dior revolution may have lasted only 10 years. But his successors Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and now Raf Simons have designed clothes to convey the same singular element...feminine elegance.