NEW LOOK
In 1947, when Europe just started recovering after the war, Christian Dior created a silhouette that will forever go down in history as New Look. This, without doubt, is the main designer's invention made an outstanding contribution to the fashion world. Dior did not think up the name (it did an American journalist and editor Carmel Snow in her review of the first collection of Christian Dior house); he did not plan to do revolution and just wanted to women in post-war Europe to "look beautiful again." World War II fashion seemed to him too ugly: massive foam rubber shoulders, baggy knee skirts, huge platform shoes. The designer believed that all these clothes did not emphasize the beauty of female figure. Having spent his childhood on the North-West coast of France, surrounded by mother and her friends dressed in luxurious Edwardian gowns, from the early age he knew that woman is adorned with accented waist, long puffed skirts, corsets and wide-brimmed hats. Owing to New Look women became weaker sex again, they began to wear dresses with sloping shoulders and wasp waist, and Dior was immediately internationally recognized.
BAR JACKET
One of the most significant inventions of Christian Dior – is the famous bar jacket, tight-fitting, short, with a peplum frill on the waist line. Dior believed that such a thing is a must-have for every lady attending cocktail parties in hotel bars, and that is why he gave the jacket such name. Typically, Dior sewed bar jacket from satin or silk fabric, accessorizing it with circular satin buttons. He proposed to wear it with narrow trousers or pencil skirt.
NARROW-WAISTED PUFFED SKIRT
Long puffed skirt narrowed in the waist and with crinolines in the hips is still considered the brand accent of New Look and of Christian Dior fashion. Sometimes the designer used more than 40 meters of fabric for such skirts, and many of them weighed several kilograms, that caused violent criticism from Dior's colleagues. Coco Chanel talked about his work: "Dior does not dress women – he stuffs them." However, women liked these skirts offered to wear with heel shoes and fitted low-cut tops. Due to the unique cut the skirts kept their firm form even when stored on a hanger.
PENCIL SKIRT
Elegant pencil skirt with length of just below the knee is the unaltered part of the famous Christian Dior silhouette. Dior created it with the aim to emphasize the seductive curves of female body, and it is considered the standard of elegance and style up to this day. The couturier offered to wear it with bar jacket or fitted top.
MISS DIOR
Christian Dior quickly proved himself not only as a master of women's fashion, but also as a successful entrepreneur who first began licensing his brand. In addition to fashion design, he became interested in other aspects of business, including female perfume. The first perfume of Christian Dior house, named "Miss Dior", was created in 1947 - the year of the famous collection marked the beginning of New Look style. "I created this perfume to envelop every woman with aroma of passion and to see my dresses in the bottle," Christian Dior said. The chypre fragrance created by two famous Parisian perfumers Jean Carles and Paul Vacher went down in history forever and it is still one of the best selling perfumes in the world.
