Language Of A Legend

Code name: BAR. These three letters forever changed fashion. And with it came, over seven decades, the passionate invocation of the fashion sphere. It all began with Christian Dior’s afternoon suit, the inspiration for which came from the Café Society clients, who frequented the bar at the Plaza, an outfit he presented during his first show on February 12, 1947.

The shantung jacket with an exaggerated tail, playing on the contrast between the lean, perfect fit and the roundness of the hips, along with its long, woollen fabric pleated skirt, the Bar grabbed eyeballs. To find it today in its exceptional glory, one can visit Christian Dior, couturier du rêve exposition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. One can only try to imagine and feel the emotion that the outfit provoked when it first appeared. If it was the bestseller, then Maxim’s dress with its large velvet knot placed right on the stomach, was also a tremendous hit.

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The Bar suit was, for long, a symbol of standard bearer for the stylistic revolution headed by this novice couturier, who was then a 42-year old. He was propelled to international stardom right after his first tour of the runway. After this he threw himself into expression of a design that would add to the allure of the creator himself. He created a collection that would later become an identifier of sorts for the ’50s.

As New York’s designation bore Christian (What am I doing, dear lord, what am I doing, he wrote as he heard the term being used everywhere), the Bar spirit itself became one of the pillars of his prolific universe. It was a founding code, which to this day, expresses the modernity of Dior. The heirs of this legacy have each done their own totem piece: deconstructed and rehashed, minimalistic or amplified, restructured and turned on its head. The jacket with an exaggerated tail was reborn with every collection, made relevant forever.

With Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first woman creative director in the history of the brand, this sophisticated concept has been explored in its most extreme forms. She has brought a new sporty look: a Bar which is open, in a manner of speaking, supple and malleable. This fall/winter, it pulls out a hood, inspired by a design from 1949 named Chevrier, which was a sort of hoodie that falls generously on the hips. It is an attempt by the Italian designer to firmly anchor a feminine ideal, cultivated by Christian, during the era of women empowerment and contemporary feminism.

An ode to grace

Give women back all their power was Christian’s objective. Times were different. It was a time when French women had just been given the right to vote. It signified, above all, the reinstating their power of seduction. But for his mission, he employed and deployed ridiculous lengths of splendid fabrics at a time when food ration cards still existed. The fashion of Dior, an ode to grace and happiness, stood for an opulence of spectacular materials and marvellous embroidery, delicate pleats and the draped savant, all of this aimed primarily to the sacralisation of being a woman. “The dress is a bit of ephemeral architecture with exalted proportions of the female body,” he wrote. Out with les tailleurs de boxeurs and other uniforms from the sober years, and in with soft shoulders and delicious curves.

A morphology of what was and what should be conceptualised like never before, notably by his famous lines (in “8”, “S”, “Ovale” and others in “Sinueuse”) that headlined each of his collections and which, to keep the lovers of fashion breathless, varied based on the designer’s desire to play with sizes, shapes and contours: winged sleeves one day, a fluffed-up effect on the hips the next, a cushion draped at the base of the back the following day. The same goes for the tight fits, another signature of Dior that has a refreshed look from one season to the next.

Glamour like that had never been seen before, inspired by the crinolines and the low, push up décolletées from the Age of Enlightenment, Dior’s favourite era, specifically when it comes to the décor of its boutiques, everything is put in place with reference to the Belle Époque. An outlandish cocktail dress which, while referring to the ideals of the past, stands as a foundation to the contemporary.

Deluge of dresses

His creativity burst forth to influence the dressing style and culture of the entire world, giving Paris back its title of the capital of fashion, expertly put forward in a pyrotechnic deluge of dresses. There were those in the shape of a corolla, another which formed the foundations of Dior vocabulary just like the Bar jacket, celebrating this vision of the woman with absolute delicateness. He also brought the bustier neck back, sheath suits, coat-dresses worn directly over the skin and so on. All sorts of Trafalgar square specimens, where he would bring his dedicated models to blow the minds of the public and to nourish the exceptional image that the house enjoys to this day.

The trademarks

The explosive blows which came, following a meticulously orchestrated scenography during the shows were, for the most part, enshrouded in shades of red. Nuances of pink, black and blue were also included. But we cannot forget Trianon grey, a colour most dear to the Dior aesthetic, and a profusion of flowers were facets explored by his successors that represent the expertise of Dior. To witness it, in detail, a new anthology consecrated to the 7 creative directors who have helped mould this history is in place. The panther form, in use today, just as much as it was after the first collection in 1947, brought out at a time when the depiction of a large feline cat was a very bold move. Much like the use of fabrics in women’s clothing that were traditionally reserved for men’s fashion such as the Prince of Wales tweed.

The Dior woman is beautiful and aloof like a queen, but never is she cold. Is she not then the ultimate woman, one which, from one moment to the next, exudes absolute elegance?

Christian Dior, couturier du rêve is on at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, till January 7, 2018.

From the September 2017 issue of L’Officiel India.