Christian Dior

Christian Dior was one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most influential fashion designers. As a young man he supported himself by sketching designs and his hats and dresses gained great attention. In 1933 he started to work as a designer for Robert Piaget, drawing dresses with narrow waists and wide skirts, the silhouette that he was so successfully introduced after WWII. The intention was never that Dior would work in fashion; his parents wanted him to be a diplomat, and he lived up to this by studying at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris from 1920 to 1925. Dior himself wanted to work in the arts, primarily fashion. He sold his fashion sketches on the street to earn money. After completing his studies, Dior received money from his father and went on to open an art gallery. After the Dior family was hit by a financial crisis and his father lost his business, Dior was forced to close the gallery. Christian Dior was the first fashion designer to endorse changes in fashion trends by changing the silhouette every season. Every year Dior presented seven collections, of which two were haute couture. Dior saw the value of allowing fashions to change and often adjusted silhouettes so that it was necessary to buy a new suit every season. He founded the first perfume subsidiary in 1948 and, by the time he died in 1957, he had created a major fashion empire. Dior died aged just 52. After his death, the firm continued under the management of Yves Saint-Laurent. However, he turned out to be too radical for the company and only stayed for the years 1957–1961. The house of Dior is now a fashion empire with extensive licensed production, many designers of its own and stores around the world.