(AFP) – After Paris and London, the Dior exhibition takes place from Friday at the Brooklyn Museum in a new version, to bring the French house into dialogue with American culture.
“Dior couturier du rêve” had broken attendance records in the French and British capitals in 2017 and 2019. The couture house, owned by the luxury giant LVMH, is playing overtime and is invited to New York in full Fashion week, with a more American narrative about Christian Dior.
In 1947, the French couturier met with dazzling success in Paris with his very first Corolle collection, soon renamed “New Look” by Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and which would revolutionize the fashion of the time with a redesigned silhouette, very fitted waist, round hips and rounded skirt.
In the United States, Dior is invited to Dallas to receive the Neiman Marcus luxury store award. Her time in Chicago is marked by protests from women who refuse her “grandmother” skirts so long. But in 1948, he opened his house on 5th Avenue in New York, which he discovered in a state of “permanent wonder”, he wrote.
“He began his exploration of the world from this house, founded in 1948,” says the curator of the exhibition, Florence Müller, head of fashion collections at the Denver museum, who describes Dior as “a pioneer in the globalization of fashion. “.
– “Passionate about art” –
Through some 300 dresses are retraced nearly 75 years of history of the house and of the creators who succeeded the Frenchman, after his death in 1957, from Yves Saint Laurent to Maria Grazia Chiuri, the current artistic director of Dior and first woman to hold this post.
In the “Enchanted Garden”, a very tall room decorated with a shower of stars, the collections are showcased from floor to ceiling and at 360 degrees.
“About two-thirds of the dresses were not presented in Paris” during the original exhibition, emphasizes Florence Müller. “Here, Dior was not doing haute couture, he was doing luxury ready-to-wear” for “Americans (who) are looking for something more comfortable, perhaps easier to wear,” he explains. -she.
For its part, the Brooklyn Museum has managed to create a dialogue between the label and certain works in its collection. “Dior was passionate about art. It shows through his creations,” said Matthew Yokobosky, fashion curator at the New York museum.
From the start of the tour, we find a delicate porcelain doll dressed in a black dress, designed by Christian Dior himself and that the institution was able to acquire in 1949 for an exhibition on French fashion.
Then there is this striking resemblance between a dress designed by John Galliano and a painting by the Italian painter from the beginning of the 20th century, Giovanni Boldini.
More recently, Maria Grazia Chiuri collaborated on a parade with American feminist artist Judy Chicago, whose monumental work, “The dinner party”, is on display at the Brooklyn Museum.
Finally, rooms are dedicated to Hollywood stars dressed in Dior and American photographers, such as Richard Avedon, who have immortalized his models.
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