"Enthusiasm for life is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty without enthusiasm" Christian Dior
"Enthusiasm for life is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty without enthusiasm" Christian Dior once said, and if there is a city that exudes enthusiasm for life (and for fashion) in every corner, that is New York.
From Fifth Avenue to Willliamsburg and from the Upper East Side to Coney Island, passing through the West Village, Soho, Dumbo and the Brooklyn Bridge: the Big Apple is an authentic open-air catwalk with stops that delight fashion lovers Well, here luxury boutiques coexist with vintage stores and fashion exhibitions are the order of the day.
Christian Dior with one of his mannequins in May 1955
The latest fashion news takes us straight to the brooklyn museum , which from September 10, 2021 (and until February 20, 2022) will host the exhibition Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams.
The exhibition will review the more than 70 years of history of the Maison Dior through 200 haute couture outfits, as well as photographs, videos, sketches, vintage perfumes, accessories, and works from the Brooklyn Museum's collection.
Tickets can be purchased online from June 17 on the museum's website.
CHRISTIAN DIOR: DESIGNER OF DREAMS
Presented in the museum's magnificent 1,800-square-meter Beaux-Arts Courtyard, designed by the McKim, Mead & White studio in 1893, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is based on important exhibitions held at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris (2017), at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (2019) and at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai (2020).
The cultural institution will juxtapose unique pieces drawn from the archives of Christian Dior and the artistic directors who succeeded him –Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri– with items from the Brooklyn Museum's own collection.
Unique pieces drawn from the archives of Christian Dior and the artistic directors who succeeded him will be juxtaposed with items from the Brooklyn Museum's own collection.
In one section, it shows a Folding Screen Wall (FSW) –a kind of folding screen arranged on the wall– by Charles and Ray Eames Composed of ten panels and dating from 1946-1955, with Dior designs of the time.
Another section will contain drawings and studies by Judy Chicago , featured with recent Chiuri designs. It should also be noted the Fashion Doll 1880 Afternoon Ensemble by Dior of 79 centimeters, the only one of its kind, which entered the collection of the Brooklyn Museum in 1949, making it the first museum in the United States to acquire a Dior piece.
DIOR AND FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
The Brooklyn Museum will exhibit fashion snapshots by leading American photographers such as Lillian Bassman, Cass Bird, Henry Clarke, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, William Helburn, Horst P. Horst, William Klein, David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Frances McLaughlin-Gill, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Karen Radkai, and Herb Ritts.
There will also be a special presentation of the iconic Dovima with Elephants by Richard Avedon, a snapshot taken at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris in August 1955, in which the American model Dovima poses with a black evening dress designed by a young Yves Saint-Laurent for Dior.
The exhibition is curated by Dior academic Florence Müller, curator of the Avenir Foundation for Textile Art and Fashion at the Denver Art Museum, in collaboration with Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture at the Brooklyn Museum.
Yves Saint-Laurent's dress for Dior from Richard Avedon's famous photograph 'Dovima with Elephants' (Indianapolis Museum of Art)
THE 'NEW LOOK', THE FLOWERS AND THE PETITE MAINS
The exhibition is articulated around a common thread that leaves nothing to chance and that plunges us fully into the Dior universe, from its mythical New Look silhouette to its passion for flowers through the revered petites mains.
Thus, the exhibition includes a wide range of haute couture garments that exemplify many of the legendary silhouettes of the French couturier, including the aforementioned New Look, which debuted in 1947, a few months before Dior traveled to the United States and opened the Christian Dior headquarters in New York.
“Back in 1947, with his famous New Look collection, Christian Dior transformed the sudden recognition of his name into the international expansion of his house, becoming a forerunner of contemporary globalized fashion” , comment Florence Muller (Avenir Foundation; Denver Art Museum).
“The opening of the first New York branch, in 1948, was the prelude to this world fame. Following the presentation of Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams in Paris and London, the new exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum pays homage to this unique historical fashion adventure that began between Paris and New York”, adds Müller.
With their designs widely photographed and featured in leading publications, Dior soon became one of the most recognized names in the world of fashion also across the Atlantic.
The exhibition also brings to life the master's sources of inspiration, from the splendor of flowers and other natural forms to classic and contemporary art, that would influence the designers of the Maison Dior for decades.
The toile room, a tribute to the Ateliers, and the adjoining galleries of haute couture garments show the excellence of Dior's petites mains.
The central atrium of the Beaux-Arts courtyard, meanwhile, has been redesigned as an enchanted garden and a final gallery showcases many celebrity gowns worn by movie stars from Grace Kelly to Jennifer Lawrence.
THE LEGACY
The presentation also explores the evolution of the House of Dior through the vision of its later artistic directors, from Yves Saint Laurent, whose main influences included the beatniks and the 1953 film The Wild One, until Marc Bohan and his almost thirty years of reign during the revolutionary '60s and '70s, as well as the '80s, when Bohan was inspired by Jackson Pollock.
Other artistic directors' creations include the architectural designs of Gianfranco Ferré from the 1990s; John Galliano's reinventions of Dior silhouettes inspired by works as diverse as Egyptian sculpture and the paintings of Giovanni Boldini; Raf Simons' own minimalist take on original Dior designs; and pieces by the current and first creative director of Dior's women's collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has brought a new vision to the historic fashion house.
Maria Grazia Chiuri became the first woman to head the Maison Dior
Chiuri debuted in 2016 and her t-shirt where you could read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's statement, “We Should All Be Feminists” ("We should all be feminists"), went around the world.
The designer of Italian origin also expressed her commitment that the official images of each new collection will be photographed by women.
"We should all be feminists"
CHIURI: A NEW ERA
As the only major museum in the country to have galleries and a collection dedicated to feminist art (the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center, located on the fourth floor), The Brooklyn Museum is the place to explore Chiuri's groundbreaking endeavors and soak up her passion and advocacy for creative women.
“The Brooklyn Museum has a long history of recognizing significant contributions to the history of fashion design, from The Story of Silk (1934) to the innovator Of Men Only (1976) , the recent Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion (2019) and now Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams. Each one exemplifies the power of fashion to influence and change visual culture at large," he says. Matthew Yokobosky (BrooklynMuseum).
“Today, the work of Maria Grazia Chiuri has reshaped the Dior dream for a new generation, with a worldview that brings inclusion and respect as key philosophical guidelines. We couldn't be more excited to introduce these innovative, seductive and technically outstanding designs to our audience."
The exhibition is curated by Florence Müller, (Dundación Avenir / Denver Art Museum), in collaboration with Matthew Yokobosky (Brooklyn Museum)
PRACTICAL DATA
Tickets for Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams will go on sale to the general public on Thursday June 17, 2021.
Members will have access to a presale to reserve your free tickets starting Thursday, June 10, 2021.
Due to COVID-19 capacity restrictions, all visitors must buy the ticket in advance in order to establish visiting shifts.
The new catalog of the exhibition, which will be published on the occasion of the opening, narrates the evolution of the Maison Dior from his first collection in 1947 in Paris, when Christian Dior heralded the birth of a new era of elegance with his revolutionary New Look, to the present day.
Published by Rizzoli, the book includes a foreword by Anne Pasternak , in charge of the Shelby White and Leon Levy institution of the Brooklyn Museum; an introduction of Florence Muller ; contributions from Matthew Yokobosky, Jerome Gautier, and Maureen Footer and photographs of Katerina Jebb.
Address: 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238, United States View Map
Telephone: +17186385000