Indianapolis Museum of Art celebrates the design legacy of Christian Dior a half century after his death.
By Sally Howard
PICTURE THE 20TH CENTURY’S ARCHETYPAL FEMALE FASHION SILHOUETTE. What comes to mind? The low waistlines of the ’20s? The monochrome minis of the ’60s? For many people, it’s the cinch-waisted, full-skirted figure of the ’50s that stands out. It was this ultra-feminine look—popularized by Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield—that reawakened the fashion world from a slumber after World War II. Voluptuous and less mindful of function than form, these designs reflected the upbeat mood of the era and made Christian Dior a household name.
Fifty years after his death in 1957, the IMA (ima-art.org) has introduced an exhibition of key Dior pieces, most of which were once owned by Midwestern women. The exhibit also offers an intimate picture of Dior’s impact on the modern American closet. “Consider how different Dior’s ‘New Look’ was when it premiered in 1947, two years after the war ended,” says Niloo Paydar, curator of textiles and costumes for the museum. “Fabric was rationed during wartime, so the extravagant use of cloth was huge. Initially, people rejected Dior’s fashion ideas. Then, of course, the look became a hit in America first, as Europe was harder hit by wartime austerity.”
The meteoric rise of Dior mirrored the post-war confidence of the U.S. The nation wholeheartedly embraced the traditional family unit, which included a working husband and feminine, stay-at-home wife. Out went the utilitarian trouser suits favored by gals working for the war effort, and in came the feminine new look.
Who was this Frenchman who so succeeded in capturing the spirit of women in the U.S.? Christian Dior was born in Normandy in 1905, the son of a well-to-do middle class family who hoped he’d become a diplomat. However, following a childhood steeped in the heady atmosphere and blossoming arts scene of Belle Époque (The Beautiful Era) France, Dior had other ideas. In 1928, he opened a small art gallery in Paris, and after a family bankruptcy, spent the ’30s sketching for Paris’ haute couture fashion houses. His big break came in 1945, when he designed for Marcel Boussac—a man who had made his fortune from fabric and spied the potential in Dior’s new design ideas, which included a focus on sumptuously layered fabrics.
Dior premiered his first collection, Corolle Line, in 1947. Employing fabrics lined with percale, boned bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats, Dior’s designs gave his models a curvaceous form and a flattering silhouette.
Almost immediately, his couture house was inundated with orders. Superstar ballerina Margot Fonteyn bought a suit; and the young British princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, were treated to a private presentation of the new style (although they were banned from buying the swishy new dress designs by father George VI, should they set a bad example in a country still subject to rationing).
But, it was in North America that Dior was most rapturously received. The era’s golden girl, actress Rita Hayworth, requested an evening gown for the premiere for the movie of the year, Gilda, and New York socialites and department store buyers clamored to obtain the exclusive rights to individual designs. By the early ’50s, the Dior aesthetic had captured the imagination of all American society. Chicago’s Marshall Fields had nine Dior couture workshops and a marble-lined salon, dubbed the “28 Shop.”
Even discount clothing chains, such as Ohrbach’s, were allowed to attend the Dior shows on the condition that they bought a minimum number of outfits, which they replicated stitch-for-stitch in their “knock-off” lines.
The IMA’s exhibition, “Dior: The King of Couture,” runs through Nov. 30, and focuses on the painstaking artistry of the House of Dior’s early haute couture, when its founder was still at the helm. (After Dior’s death in 1957, control of the house ceded to former protégé Yves Saint Laurent.) The 20 gowns featured include two pieces typifying the new look of 1947, including a pleated flared dress suit from 1955 owned by Midwesterner Nancy Foxwell.
Other highlights are a delicate beaded evening dress, which features a birdlike 20-inch waist, and a lavish semi-formal gown of brilliant red silk chiffon with a bouffant skirt that swirls fluidly around the body.
“We anticipate that the exhibition will be popular,” Paydar says. “It’s not long ago, of course, that museums wouldn’t consider fashion as art—not even textiles. But we’re beginning to see haute couture designs for what they are: three-dimensional works of art. Women wore Dior’s fabulous dresses. They didn’t do housework in them, obviously, but they would have to eat and sit and move around. It was art in motion.”
For the most part, it’s women who are most interested by the IMA’s vintage fashion shows. The recent “I Do” bridal wear exhibition and the “All Dressed Up” exhibit, which featured the latest modern and historic costume acquisitions, were attended by a new gallery-going demographic, which Paydar defines as “laughing groups of girlfriends on a lunch date.” This trend is reflected in galleries nationwide, as forward-thinking curators plug into the new art consumer, staging modern-fashion exhibitions. Not that men are entirely absent, of course. “What we’ve found with the guys is that they’re most interested in the way we mount the dresses—how we make them look as if they’re floating in mid-air—rather than the dresses themselves. I catch them on their knees, looking up the skirts to see how they’re attached to the wall,” Paydar laughs.
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