Fashion Comes Alive! Christian Dior and the New Look

World War II did what even the Great Depression could not -- it stopped the ever changing, always evolving world of fashion.  Haute couture disappeared almost completely as grinding privation and the prevalence of military uniforms became the norm.  Women's fashion during the 1940s took on characteristics of uniforms -- padded shoulders, suits and shorter, straight cut skirts.

1940s Straight Cut Suit

Many women were still remaking older outfits into more fashionable ones, a decade and more since the beginning of the Great Depression.  There was no material available for new outfits and war created severe and somber times.  Extravagance and sensuousness had no place in the war years.

Even in 1947, two years after the end of the war, rationing was still in effect. But the world of fashion was about to undergo a huge shift and awaken from years of slumber.  On February 12, 1947 a seasoned designer named Christian Dior radically changed the direction of women's fashion and ushered in an era of unrestrained joie d vivre and celebration of the female form.

Dior's Bar Suit, 1947

Christian Dior was born in 1905 in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy.  His father was a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer.  The Dior family moved to Paris when Christian was about five.  As a teen he was already designing -- he was very artistic and sold fashion sketches for ten cents each outside the family home.  He left school when his father financed a small art gallery for him -- he sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso. After the Dior family's lost their business in the Great Depression the gallery closed. Christian went to work for the designer Robert Piguet. He designed three collections for Piguet and said that Piguet "taught me the virtues of simplicity, through which true elegance must come".



He and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers for the house of Lucien Lelong during the Nazi occupation of France.  Like other designers (Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin and Nina Ricci) they designed for Nazi officers' wives and French collaborators to keep their businesses alive. 

Early 1950s Dior Designs

Dior founded his own house in 1946 with the financial backing of Marcel Boussac, a cotton magnate. It was the House of Dior that presented what came to be known as the New Look.

In that February, 1947 show, Dior forever changed women's fashion and helped make Paris the center of Couture once again.  Dior's outfits had rounded shoulders, tucked, small waists, and accentuated breasts and hips.  The silhouette was characterized by a small, nipped in waist, and a full skirt, held out with a petticoat, falling to below mid-calf.

The very first outfit to appear on the runway that day was the Bar Suit.  The official name of the show was Corolle -- for the petals of a flower. Dior was quoted as saying "I have designed flower women".  The name would not last long.

Marion Cotillard in a Dior Bar Suit

After the show, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow, was heard to say to Dior "It's such a new look!"  And indeed it was.  So new it astonished people.  So extravagant in the use of material that King George at first did not allow his daughters to wear the new designs because of ongoing rationing. Eventually Princess Margaret became a well known client of Dior. 

Dior's stunning new designs helped to usher in a new outlook as well.  As economies recovered from the war, extravagance and sensuality became acceptable again. The world shook off the somber mood of decades of depression and a horrific war and loosened up. Flirty, feminine and fun was in.  Prominent women on both sides of the Atlantic wore outfits designed for them by Dior. Some of Dior's designs used as much as 20 yards of fabric!

Dior, 1950

The change from a world weary of war to one ready to have some fun is reminiscent of the transition from the 1910s into the 1920s -- with the great exception that women, after being exalted as "Rosie the Riveter," and proving themselves outside traditional roles, returned to being housewives and mothers. The sea change in women's fashion brought back restrictive undergarments.  The flapper had sought freedom from convention -- in the 1950s women returned to conventional roles and donned a lighter version of the corset. History may repeat, but never in quite the same manner.






The New Look caught on like a brush fire and defined the 1950s silhouette. Bullet bras, tight girdles and crinolines were all used to heighten the effect of the new designs.  Dior used built in padding around the hips to accentuate the tiny waistlines and add sensuality to the form.

Dior in 1957

Accessories were essential to complete the look. Narrow shoes with thin heels helped to maintain the overall silhouette.  Gloves were a must -- short ones for day and long above the elbow gloves for evening wear. Hats also were part of the everyday outfit.  Dior wanted not only to bring sensuality back -- he wanted a sense of the genteel as well.  He wanted women to be as flowers.

1950s Dress, DaisyandStella

The New Look was interpreted by many different designers and labels-- Suzy Perette is one American label that was quite popular in the 1950s.

In 1953, an Algerian born design student named Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent won first prize for fashion design in a competition by the International Wool Secretariat (beating out the likes of Karl Lagerfeld). He was introduced to Dior and went to work for him. Just a few months before his untimely death from a heart attack in 1957, Dior informed Saint Laurent that he was to be his successor.

Trapeze Coat, 1958

Saint Laurent was just 21 years old when he succeeded Dior. He was also a brilliant revolutionary. He is known as one of the greatest names in fashion history.  His Spring 1958 collection for the House of Dior introduced a softer version of the New Look -- the swingy trapeze dress -- and he became an international sensation.  The trapeze dress is credited with saving the House of Dior from financial ruin.

The New Look, SissysVintage

Sadly, Saint Laurent's 1959 and 1960 lines were not well received.  He was inducted into the French Army and fired by Dior.  He began his own firm -- his major contributions to fashion were in the 1960s and 1970s -- outside the scope of this article.

The resurgence in popularity of vintage New Look clothing shows that Dior was certainly on to something with his sexy, flower designs.  His influence is still prevalent in haute couture some 60 years after the1947 show.  Modern designers return again and again to the silhouette Dior introduced. There is a timeless, elegance and celebration of the female form to Dior's work.  Today though, women have a choice as to what they wear underneath -- or if they want to vacuum in a charming day dress with crinoline, high heels and pearls as Harriet Nelson and the Beaver's Mom so famously did!

1950s Dress, DecadencePast

1950s Wedding Dress, MerakiVintage

Day Dress, DaisysVtgClothesLine

Cocktail Dress, DaisyandStella

Italian Leather Gloves, KatsCache

1950s Dress Pattern, EACrow

1950s Day Dress, DeannesVintage

References

Christian Dior (1905 - 1957) - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Met Museum

Christian Dior - Fashion Designer (1905-19570 - Design Museum

Boy Chanel - Diorable Style; February 12, 1947 - Dior's New Look is Born

the New Look Revolution - La MaisonDior

Christian Dior, S.A.- Wkipedia

Yves Saint Laurent (designer)