Geography Project Part 2: France: Christian Dior

In my last geography post I said that Phantom of the Opera was based on a French novel so I’m going to link it to France.

Christian Dior was born on 21 January 1905 in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France. Today the population of Granville is around 12,847. Originally Granville was created as a Viking Settlement, it then became part of English territory in France from the 14th century until 1442. The most important religious monument in Granville is the 17th century Church of Notre-Dame, in the historic centre and overlooking the sea, with the church tower acting as a beacon to arriving boats. The church is best known for its contemporary stained glass windows.

Dior had four siblings: Raymond, Jacqueline, Bernard, and Ginette. When Christian was about five years old, the family moved to Paris, but returned to Normandy for the summer holidays.  Dior and his family spent each summer at 19th century 'Villa les Rhumbs' and the house is now a museum dedicated to Dior’s fashion creations.

 His family had hopes that he would become a diplomat, but Dior was artistic and wanted to be involved in fashion.  To make money, Dior sold his fashion sketches from the outside of his house for 10 cents each. When he was 23 years old, Dior received money from his father so that she and his friend could open a small art gallery. They sold works of art by the likes of Pablo Picasso.

3 years later, after the death of his mother and brother, during The Great Depression they were forced to close the gallery. Up until 1940 he worked with fashion designer Robert Piguet. Then he was called for military service.

In 1942, Dior left the army and joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong with Pierre Balmain. All throughout World War ll, he designed dresses for the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators, as did other fashion houses that remained in business during the war, for example Nina Ricci.

On 16 December 1946 Dior founded his fashion house.  His first collection, presented in early 1947, was named ‘Corolle’, [meaning circlet of flower petals]. Dior's designs were more modern than the fabric-conserving shapes of World War II styles, caused by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes. He was known for using: the fabric percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving the wearers a very curvaceous form. Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior's designs due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit.

 

Dior never married. He died while on holiday in Montecatini, Italy on 23 October 1957. Today, there are still a number of rumours surrounding Dior’s death, examples of these are: heart attack, choking and a seizure. To this day, the exact circumstances remain undisclosed.


Picture sources:
http://www.osmoz.com/var/osmoz/storage/images/media/images/dior/472270-1-fre-FR/dior.jpg
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_C.I.53.40.5a-e.jpg
http://theartdepartments.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/christian-dior.jpg