"Inspiration Dior", the major exhibition at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, is a unique dialogue between artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Renoir, Cézanne and Christian Dior creations. Collector members of the ARTKABINETT social network will view a stunning juxtaposition of Dior's creativity alongside these great masters.
On February 12th, 1947: Christian Dior presented his first collection at Avenue Montaigne. The revolution was underway and the New Look is born. With it, The House of Dior enters the world of legend.
Unknown until that moment, the genius designer who revered the French way of life entered a triumphant decade, providing women with regal bearing and a sublime look. Skirts were longer, shoulders were softened and waists were cinched.
A Dior flower-women blossomed in the post-war era, and outrageously splendid, was soon to conquer the world with infinite grace.
This present museum exhibition demonstrates how inspiration has nourished the heart of Dior for decades.
This amazing journey guides the visitor through the Dior artistic creative sources of fashion and its links to history, nature, painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and film.
It reveals now an idea, a feeling, an era, a garden, a perception or even a smell can instill an idea in the heart and mind, giving rise to a unique creation.
The key themes of the Dior legend – past and present on a grand scale in original fashion, set against unique works of art. It is a journey of corresponding elements and magical synergies, where the New Look is echoed in works by Picasso, Modigliani, Renoir, Cezanne or even Gauguin.
Nudes by Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan and Orlan emphasise the gloriously modern lines of the female body, accentuated by Christian Dior.
This waltz through time enchants the visitor with lush gardens and recollections of the 18th century and the Belle Époque.
Marie-Antoinette meets Jeff Koons, Bonnard’s landscapes celebrate Dior’s flower-women and the Egyptian goddesses from spring summer 2004 establish a radiant, golden destiny.
The Dior grand balls are also celebrated in all their glory in an enchanted setting where Ingres’ aristocrats admire breathtaking crinolines and haute couture gowns.
The visitor is then transported around the world with Dior via Goya’s Spain, Matisse’s heady orient and of course, Russia and Asia.
The world of Dior beauty also provides the opportunity to view René Gruau’s strikingly modern illustrations and allows the Russian plastic artist, Olga Kisseleva to create an installation exploring the sensual and sensory universe of Dior perfumes.
A mirror effect of deliberate similarities lays down the framework of this exceptional exhibition, in which the quest for ideal beauty creates the link between Christian Dior, genius couturier, and the impressive and unexpected gallery of great masters.
"Finally everything that has been part of my life – whether I wanted it or not – has expressed itself in my dresses", Christian Dior.
Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models 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.
During one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over this profligacy, but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The "New Look" (a name given it by American fashion-magazine editor Carmel Snow) revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.
