dior adele biography

From 19 to 30: A look back at Adele's career so far

One critic calls adele's 30 'her toughest, most powerful album yet'.

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It's the moment Adele fans have been waiting for. After a six-year hiatus, the British singer-songwriter released her highly anticipated fourth studio album, 30, on Friday.

Best known for songs like Hello and Rolling In the Deep, Adele has collected 15 Grammy Awards, and her 2015 album, 25, is estimated to have sold  more than 22 millions copies worldwide. Critics say her commercial success will continue with 30 , with  Rolling Stone calling it "her toughest, most powerful album yet."

CBC News looks back on Adele's career leading up to the release of her new album. 

2008-9: Adele releases debut album

In 2008, Adele released her debut album 19, which features songs like Chasing Pavements and Cold Shoulder. The album won her the first-ever BRIT Awards Critics' Choice the same year. 

In a 2008 interview with U.K. soul writer Pete Lewis, the singer-songwriter said the album represented her life when she wrote it at age 19. "I just kinda remember becoming a bit of a woman during that time," Adele said. "And I think that is definitely documented in the songs."

These types of thematic albums allow artists like Adele to form personal connections with their audiences, says Brian Fauteux, an associate professor of popular music and media studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

• Adele talks anxiety, weight loss and ending her marriage during Oprah sit-down
• Listen Adele's 'almost Beatles level' global appeal and what it means for the music industry

"There's something about the way her songwriting and singing come together to tap into these universal feelings, emotions and experiences," said Fauteux.

"It allows fans to follow along with her career. She's aging at the same time as [her] fan base."

19 also won Adele Grammys for best new artist and best female pop vocal performance in 2009. She ended her first world tour, An Evening with Adele, later that year.

2011-12: Adele releases 2nd album and meets now ex-husband

Adele's second album, 21, was released in 2011 and is estimated to have sold nearly 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. 

The same year, Adele went on her second tour and met her now ex-husband, British charity entrepreneur Simon Konecki.

The songstress collected more Grammy hardware in 2012, winning all six of the categories in which she was nominated, making her the second female artist to win that many awards in one night. (Following Beyoncé.) After her Grammy success, she revealed her plans to take a break from music. Her son, Angelo, was born later that year.

A major part of Adele's appeal, according to Canadian radio broadcaster and music writer Alan Cross, is that she comes across as "very, very human."

"She wasn't this perfect physical specimen who seemed to have it all," said Cross. "And the things that she's singing about really resonated with individual people. She was almost an everywoman."

LISTEN | Tom Power, host of CBC's Q , talks with Adele about new album and career:

2015-17: 3rd album brings continued success

Adele re-emerged in the music scene with her hit single Hello in October 2015. She released her third album, 25, in November that year, which became the best-selling album worldwide in 2015.

Her third concert tour, Adele Live 2016, ended the following year after she cancelled her final two performances due to vocal injuries. The singer first suffered from a vocal cord hemorrhage in 2011. 

Despite medical setbacks, Adele won all five of her nominations at the 2017 Grammy Awards. During her acceptance speech for album of the year, she thanked her "husband" for his support, teasing her forthcoming marriage to Konecki.

2018-20: Taking another break

Adele announced in 2016 that she would take another break from music to look after her then three-year-old son. Two years later, she married Konecki. But the singer later filed for divorce in 2019.

Their separation would become the focus of Adele's upcoming album.

In celebration of her 31st birthday in 2019, the singer posted several black-and-white photographs of herself on Instagram and reflected on the previous year. She signed off the Instagram post  by teasing new music, writing "30 will be a drum 'n bass record to spite you."

The artist hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2020 and told fans on Instagram that she was going back to her "cave," but that she would be back next year.

2021: New album and new beginnings

On Oct. 15, 2021, Adele released her first single in nearly six years, Easy On Me, which delves into her decision to end her marriage with Konecki. The song is featured in her latest album, 30, which releases Friday.

The album has already received praise from music critics. Rolling Stone magazine said 30 is Adele's "toughest, most powerful album," while Vulture called the record Adele's best work, writing: "This is the music she should've been making all along."

"It's the record where she accounts for her divorce and how that is affecting her relationship with her son," said Mikael Wood, a pop music critic with the Los Angeles Times.

"It's key to why fans feel so warmly about her, because I think that she's a songwriter and a singer that makes listeners feel like she's articulating their own complicated emotional experiences."

Wood says 30 contains heavier subject matter than some of Adele's previous albums, but that her powerhouse vocals and emotionally charged lyricism will provide fans with the same listening experience they have come to love from Adele. 

• Adele teases new single, and a potential album

"There's no doubt that this record will be a smash," said Wood. "If you love Adele, you're going to love this record."

Cross says Adele has always had an innate ability to write and produce good music, but that the success of her album will depend on whether she has been able to grow with her audience.

"Her fan base has become much more diversified, depending on where their life has taken them," said Cross.

"Can she continue to maintain a relationship with an audience that has grown older?"

• Watch Adele's only Canadian interview with Q host Tom Power on  The National  on Sunday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Singer is a journalist with CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. She has worked in CBC newsrooms in Toronto and St. John's. You can reach her at [email protected]

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Adèle Exarchopoulos, The Kween of Versailles

By interview, photographed by pierre-ange carlotti, styled by omaima salem, photography pierre-ange carlotti, stylist omaima-salem, illustrations by omaia salem, december 11, 2018.

Adèle wears Bra by Phylea Paris. Jacket by Saks Potts. Skirt by Faustine Steinmetz. Necklace by Dior Fine Jewelry. Bag by Versace. Pumps by Balenciaga

Best known for her role in Blue Is the Warmest Color , Adèle Exarchopoulos is the youngest person in history to win the Palme d’Or. In 2019, the French actress will play Clara Saint, a 1960s Parisian socialite, in Ralph Fiennes’s forthcoming film The White Crow.  In the meantime, Exarchopoulos is enjoying her reign over France.  Vive la reine!

Adèle wears Coat by Saks Potts. Dress by Fausto Puglisi. Necklace by Burma. Ring by Bulgari. Vintage Shoes from Michel Perry. Suitcase by Rimowa.

Adèle wears Jacket by Bottega Veneta. Dress by Anne Karine Thorbjørnsen. Vintage Belt and Hat from Anouschka Paris. Ring and Earrings by Dior Fine Jewelry. Mules by Sergio Rossi.

Adèle wears Dress and Shoes by Marcia. Stole by Sprung Frères. Necklace and Bracelet by Burma. Earrings by Lele Sadoughi. Gloves from Sarah Vintage Paris.

Adèle wears Dress by Dior. Skirt by Marcia . Necklace by Lele Sadoughi. Gloves by Maison Causse. Vintage Belt, Bracelets, and Boots from Anouschka Paris,

Adèle wears coat by Acne Studios. Dress by John Galliano. Earrings by Lele Sadoughi. Shoes by Gianvito Rossi.

Adèle wears Coat by Sprung Frères. Corset by Cadolle. Leggins by Repetto. Vintage Cowboy Hat, stylist’s own. Earrings and Necklace by Burma. Shoes by Francesco Russo.

Hair:  Nabil Harlow Makeup:  Helene Vasnier at  Artlist Paris Production:  Pandora Graessl  at  Graessl Studio Production Manager:  Caroline Cire Photography Assistant:  Corentin Thevenet Fashion Assistants:  Bridgette Hungerford and  Valentine Jaquier Manicure:  Lorandy  at  Backstage Agency Production Assistant:  Mona Perron Post-Production:   Awacs Studio

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Christian Dior

(1905-1957)

Who Was Christian Dior?

Legendary fashion designer Christian Dior exploded onto the Paris fashion scene with designs that flew in the face of wartime restrictions and reintroduced a femininity and focus on luxury to women's fashion. His resulting success, based on the innovation of both his designs and his business practices, made him the most successful fashion designer in the world. His designs have been worn by film stars and royalty alike, and his company continues to operate at the forefront of the fashion industry.

Dior was born on January 21, 1905, in Granville, a seaside town in the north of France. He was the second of five children born to Alexandre Louis Maurice Dior, the owner of a highly successful fertilizer manufacturer, and his wife, Isabelle. When he was a boy, Dior's family moved to Paris, where he would spend his youth. Although Dior was passionate about art and expressed an interest in becoming an architect, he submitted to pressure from his father and, in 1925, enrolled at the École des Sciences Politiques to begin his studies in political science, with the understanding that he would eventually find work as a diplomat.

Early Work in Fashion

Following the closing of his gallery, Dior began to make ends meet by selling his fashion sketches, and in 1935, landed a job illustrating the magazine Figaro Illustré . Several years later, Dior was hired as a design assistant by Paris couturier Robert Piguet. However, when World War II began the following year, Dior served in the south of France as an officer in the French army.

Following France's surrender to Germany in 1940, Dior returned to Paris, where he was soon hired by couturier Lucien Lelong. Throughout the remaining years of the war, Lelong's design house would consistently dress the women of both Nazis and French collaborators. During this same time, Dior's younger sister, Catherine, was working for the French Resistance. (She was captured and sent to a concentration camp, but survived; she was eventually released in 1945.)

In 1957, several months after appearing on the cover of Time magazine, Dior traveled to Italy to vacation in the town of Montecatini. While there, on October 23, 1957, he suffered what was his third heart attack and died, at the age of 52.

Marcel Boussac sent his private plane to Montecatini to bring Dior's body back to Paris, and Dior's funeral was attended by an estimated 2,500 people, including all of his staff and many of his most famous clients. He was buried in Cimetière de Callian, in Var, France. At the time of his death, Dior's house was earning more than $20 million annually.

In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the designer's first presentation, the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017 published The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture . The 256-page coffee table book, through a series of breathtaking photographs, provides an in-depth look at the evolution of the French fashion house over the years.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Christian Dior
• Birth Year: 1905
• Birth date: January 21, 1905
• Birth City: Granville
• Birth Country: France
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Christian Dior was a French fashion designer whose post–World War II creations were wildly popular, and whose legacy continues to influence the fashion industry.
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• École des Sciences Politiques
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1957
• Death date: October 23, 1957
• Death City: Montecatini
• Death Country: Italy

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Christian Dior Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/history-culture/christian-dior
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: May 3, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting.
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Christian Dior Biography – From bird droppings to a fashion and jewellery empire

Dior childhood home: SimonCourtecuisse, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

“women are lucky for you, and through them you will achieve success.” -Fortune teller to a teenage Christian Dior

Now synonymous with luxury, the Christian Dior label was founded in October 1946, releasing its first collection in 1947. Shaped by his upbringing and love of art, Christian Dior, the man, instilled those values into Christian Dior, the house. Since the launch of that first collection the clothing and jewellery produced by Christian Dior is known around the world for its femininity, elegance and luxury.

Christian Dior: the man behind the Maison

Christian Dior was born in 1905 and spent his childhood at the family home in Granville, an upmarket seaside town in Normandy France. The large pink and grey pebble dash house perched on a cliff overlooking the sea.  Its interior was decorated in an array of styles which collectively he described as ‘hideous’, however he carried a sense of nostalgia for it throughout his life, with pink and grey recurring frequently in his collections.  He even sought out the sitting room wallpaper to decorate his own home later in life, incidentally, it was yellow.  The former family home now houses the Christian Dior Museum .

The Dior family money was made in fertilizer. Dior’s father, Maurice, ran the family company Dior Sons & Co. The company imported guano, that’s bird poop to you and me, and processed it into fertilizer on an industrial scale.

1928 – 1934 - Art Dealer

Christian didn’t fall directly into a fashion career but first explored many avenues. Suppressing his desire to be creative and trying to please his industrialist father he began by enrolling in a political science course. Having lost interest in that he took a sizable investment from his father and opened a Parisian art gallery with one of his friends. The money was given under the condition that the Dior name should not adorn the shop front as that was seen to be low class and shameful.

The gallery did moderately well, selling paintings by artists from Christian Dior’s social circle including Salvador Dali, Max Jacob and Picasso. A second gallery was opened in 1932 but the repercussions of the financial crash were soon felt, and the gallery was closed. By 1934 he was bankrupt.

Tapestry Workshop

While convalescing in the countryside from a bout of tuberculosis Dior discovered a love of Tapestry making. He even considered setting up a tapestry workshop but was dissuaded by the lack of public interest in tapestries.

Fashion sketches

Upon his return to the city, Dior made money as a freelance artist selling fashion sketches. His first sale yielded 120 Francs for four designs.

1937 - A start in the design world

Eventually his sketches caught the attention of Robert Piguet and Dior was offered a job as a house designer. He flourished and created many successful designs. The outbreak of the second world war led to Dior being deployed to the south of France and having to leave his job at Piguet.

1939 - Farmer

Fortunately for Dior he was stationed near to the home where his father and sister were living. His father had been ruined in the financial crash but Christian tried to keep them afloat for a time by selling off his remaining paintings from his defunct gallery. They decided to put the land that surrounded the home to work and planted crops of peas of runner beans, selling them at the local market.

1941 - Designer

He soon learned that many of the couture houses in Paris were operating during the occupation so in 1941 he took a position as designer at Lucien Lelong.

1946 - His own label

After spending several years learning his craft at Lelong Dior took financial investment and founded his own label, Maison Christian Dior.

https://www.gadelles.com/designers/christian-dior/

How Christian Dior Changed Fashion: The New Look

His first collection was a reaction to years of rationing and deprivation brought about by the economic crisis and the war. He wanted to bring good taste, elegance, femininity and luxury back to fashion.

His first collection was a hit with the editor of Harper’s Bazaar christening it the ‘New Look’. Of particular note is the Bar suit, pictured below. The cinched waist and full skirt made with yards of fabric celebrated the decadence that Dior wanted to introduce back into women’s wardrobes.

Not everyone was a fan of the New Look, with one of the fiercest critics being Coco Chanel. Unhappy at the departure from her more practical silhouette and never one to mince words she said of the New Look, “Look how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn’t know women, never had one, and dreams of being one.” Libellous statements aside, Chanel’s opinion was that the New Look with its extravagance and ultra-feminine style was undoing the liberation that women’s clothing had undergone in the previous twenty years.

Christian Dior’s Death

Sadly, Christian Dior passed away at the relatively young age of 52. He had just arrived for a stay at an Italian spa for a food detox of sorts and died of a stroke and heart attack while playing a game of cards. He had frequently described himself as being overly fond of food and reportedly ate an entire foie gras the evening before his death, having already suffered two heart attacks in previous years.

The house of Christian Dior ushered in a new look in fashion and a new era in the business of luxury goods. He introduced own-label perfumes and jewellery very early on with many fashion houses following in his footsteps. The business was enomously successful during his life and has continued to be successful ever since. One wonders if asked now, would his parents maintain their reluctance to display the family name above the door?   A Gadelles favourite is vintage Christian Dior costume jewellery, view our collection.

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From the birth of Christian Dior to the designers who succeeded him, the house is steeped in history.

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1905: Christian Dior is born in the French seaside town of Granville to an affluent family of agricultural industrialists.

1919: Dior meets a fortune-teller, who says he will find success through women.

1923: Dior enters a prestigious political science university in Paris.

1932: Dior and Pierre Colle open a gallery on Rue Cambacérès on the Right Bank in Paris, where they later display Surrealist works by Salvador Dalí , Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray.

1934: Struck with tuberculosis, Dior retreats to the Pyrenees mountains and decides to turn to fashion.

1935:  Dior does illustrations for the daily Le Figaro and fashion magazine Le Jardin des Modes and begins to sell drawings to couture houses including Jean Patou, Nina Ricci, Maggy Rouff and Balenciaga.

1938: Dior is hired by couturier Robert Piguet, where he creates the Café Anglais dress.

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1941: Dior becomes a designer for Lucien Lelong, where he plays with pencil skirts and rounded pleats.

1946: Supported by industrialist Marcel Boussac, Christian Dior establishes the Christian Dior Couture house and opens workshops at 30 Avenue Montaigne, employing 85 people.

1947: Dior presents his first collection under his own name. Winning the Neiman Marcus “fashion Oscar” in Dallas, he tours Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

1948: Christian Dior establishes a shop on Fifth Avenue in New York.

1950: Dior receives the French Legion of Honor award for his role in the fashion and textile industry and presents a collection in London to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

Marlene Dietrich wears a Christian Dior wardrobe in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Stage Fright.”

1951: Staff levels at Christian Dior swell to around 900 people.

1953: Christian Dior opens a store in Caracas, Venezuela, and travels in South and Central America.

1955: Yves Saint Laurent becomes Dior’s design assistant.

The house opens a Victor Grandpierre-decorated boutique on the corner of Avenue Montaigne and Rue François I-er in Paris.

1957:  Dior appears on the cover of Time magazine. The designer dies of a heart attack in Montecatini Terme, Italy.

Yves Saint Laurent becomes creative director of the fashion house.

1958: The Trapèze line of Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection marks a shift for the house. Roger Vivier launches a shoe brand under the Dior label.

1960: Marc Bohan becomes creative director of Christian Dior and later introduces the Slim Look.

1967: Philippe Guibourgé creates the Miss Dior ready-to-wear line.

Princess Grace of Monaco inaugurates the Baby Dior boutique at 28 Avenue Montaigne.

1970: Marc Bohan creates Christian Dior Monsieur.

1983: Marc Bohan wins the Golden Thimble for his spring haute couture collection.

Dominique Morlotti becomes creative director of Christian Dior Monsieur .

Bernard Arnault buys the Financière Agache group, owner of Christian Dior Couture.

1985: Bernard Arnault becomes chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture.

1987: François Mitterrand inaugurates a retrospective exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs for the house’s 40th anniversary.

1989: Italian couturier Gianfranco Ferré becomes the designer for Christian Dior and wins the Golden Thimble for his first fall haute couture collection.

Bernard Arnault takes over the LVMH group, owner of Parfums Christian Dior, bringing couture and perfumery back under the same roof.

1992: Patrick Lavoix becomes creative director of Christian Dior Monsieur .

1995: Bernadette Chirac presents Diana, Princess of Wales, with a brand new Dior bag named Lady Dior .

1996: John Galliano succeeds Gianfranco Ferré as designer for Christian Dior.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrates the 50th anniversary of the house of Dior with an exhibit. At the Met Gala, Lady Diana wears the first Dior dress designed by Galliano.

1997: John Galliano presents his first haute couture collection for Dior. Nicole Kidman wears a dress from his collection at the Oscar ceremony.

The Christian Dior museum opens in Christian Dior’s family home, the Villa Les Rhumbs in Granville.

1998: Dior Joaillerie is founded with Victoire de Castellane as creative director.

2000: Hedi Slimane becomes creative director of Christian Dior Monsieur and changes its name to Dior Homme.

2007: Kris Van Assche becomes creative director of Dior Homme .

2011: Bill Gaytten becomes the designer for Christian Dior.

2012: Raf Simons is appointed creative director of women’s wear for Christian Dior and presents his first haute couture collection.

2013: The Museum of Contemporary Art stages an exhibit called “The Dior Spirit” in Shanghai with over a hundred pieces from 1947 to 2013.

2016: Maria Grazia Chiuri becomes Dior’s first female creative director.

2017: The House of Dior celebrates its 70th anniversary with major exhibits in Paris and Granville, France; Melbourne, Australia; and Toronto, Canada.

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Christian Dior

By Bibby Sowray

Christian Dior was a French couturier, best known for his eponymous fashion house which is often referred to as just Dior.

Born in the seaside town of Granville on the coast of Normandy in 1905, he was the son of a wealthy fertiliser manufacturer and was one of five children. Aged five, he moved with his family to Paris.

Although his parents had hopes of him becoming a diplomat, Dior was artistically inclined and began to sell his sketches on the street to make pocket money. Upon leaving school, Dior took over a small art gallery which his father bought for him, where he and a friend sold work by artists including Pablo Picasso.

Following the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the death of both his mother and his brother, and the collapse of his father's business, Dior was forced to close his art gallery. He then went to work with fashion designer Robert Piguet until he was called up for military service in 1940.

At the end of his service in 1942, he began working for couturier Lucien Long, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. During the war, Lelong - like other French ateliers including Jeanne Lanvin and Nina Ricci - dressed the wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators as a way of preserving the fashion industry throughout the conflict for both economic and artistic reasons.

At the same time, Dior's younger sister Catherine joined the French Resistance, resulting in her capture by the Gestapo and subsequent imprisonment at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived and was liberated in 1945. In 1947, Dior named his debut fragrance Miss Dior as a tribute to her.

He founded the house of Christian Dior on December 16, 1946 at 30 Avenue Montaigne Paris, backed by Marcel Boussac, a cotton-fabric magnate. Officially, the house of Dior considers 1947 to be the year of conception as that is when Dior showed his first collection.

On February 12, 1947, Dior showed his debut collection,

presenting the 90 different looks. Named "Corolle" and "Huit", the

By Daniel Rodgers

By Lauren Murdoch-Smith

By Ellie Pithers

lines were quickly christened the "New Look", a phrase coined by

US *Harper's Bazaar * magazine editor Carmel Snow.

The look consisted of a calf-length, full skirt, a cinched waist

and fuller bust than had been seen since the turn of the century. A

rebuttal to post-war fabric restrictions - the average dress used

20 yards of fabric - the look received some criticism upon release.

The opulence of his designs contrasted with the grim post-war

reality of Europe, and helped re-establish Paris as the joyful

fashion capital it had once been.

The house was inundated with orders and world-famous stars such as Rita Hayworth and Margot Fonteyn bought and wore pieces, raising Dior's profile significantly. Dior was even invited to stage a private presentation of the collection for the British royal family - although King George V reportedly forbade the young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, from wearing the New Look in case it set a bad example at a time when rationing was still in force.

He was known to be very superstitious, a quality which increased with age. Each collection included a coat named after his place of birth, Granville; in each show at least one model wore a bunch of his favourite flower, lily of the valley; and he never began a couture show without having consulted his tarot card reader.

Dior established a luxury ready-to-wear house on the corner of 5 th Avenue and 57 th Street in New York in November 1948. It was the first of its kind. In the same year, he launched Dior Parfums - with Miss Dior being the first fragrance to launch, and Diorama launching the following year.

In 1949, Dior was the first couturier to arrange licensed production of his designs. Having realised the importance of the complete look - and that the New Look could not be successfully achieved without the correct Dior shoes, gloves and hat - Dior, together with business partner Jacques Rouët, licensed his name to a range of luxury accessories. Furs, stockings, ties and perfume were also manufactured in regional centres across the world, spreading his brand name quickly around the globe. Although this move was heavily criticised by the French Chamber of Couture - who denounced the move as cheapening the haute couture industry - licensing became a profitable move for Dior and the atelier's lesson was followed by nearly all of the period's fashion houses.

In 1955, the 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Christian Dior later met with Yves Saint Laurent's mother, Lucienne Mathieu-Saint Laurent, in 1957 to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She said at the time she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time.

Shortly after his meeting with Saint Laurent's mother, Christian Dior suffered a fatal heart attack on October 24, 1957, leaving the house in disarray. Some 2,500 people attended his funeral, including all of his staff and famous clients led by the Duchess of Windsor. In an attempt to stabilise the label, Jacques Rouët appointed the then-21-year-old Yves Saint-Laurent as artistic director.

Saint Laurent remained in the position until he was conscripted into the army, during which time he was dismissed from Dior by Rouët and replaced by Marc Bohan. Bohan proved very successful as Saint Laurent's replacement, defining a new era and new silhouette for Dior, the Slim Look, a more modern and svelte version of Dior's iconic shape.

In 1978, the Boussac Group filed for bankruptcy and its assets, including Dior, were sold to the Willot Group. After it went into administration, Bernard Arnault and his investment group purchased the Willot Group's holdings for "one symbolic franc" in 1984. On assuming power, Arnault drastically altered Dior's operations. In 1985, Arnault became chairman, CEO and managing director of Christian Dior. He repositioned it as the holding company Christian Dior S.A and in 1988, took a 32 per cent equity stake into the share capital of LVMH creating one of the leading and most influential luxury goods conglomerates in the world, whilst Christian Dior remains to stand alone as a megabrand in it's own right.

Gianfranco Ferre was made stylistic director of Christian Dior in 1989, replacing Marc Bohan. He remained in this position until 1997.

In 1997, Arnault appointed British designer John Galliano to replace Marc Bohan at the creative helm. "Galliano has a creative talent very close to that of Christian Dior. He has the same extraordinary mixture of romanticism, feminism and modernity that symbolised Monsieur Dior. In all of his creations - his suits, his dresses - one finds similarities to the Dior style," said Arnault of Galliano.

Galliano was creative director of Christian Dior until March 2011, when he was dismissed after being filmed slurring anti-Semitic remarks and allegedly assaulting a member of the public whilst heavily intoxicated in a Paris bar. Galliano's former-design director Bill Gayten headed up the house until April 9 2012 when it was announced, after more than a year of rumour and speculation, that Raf Simons had taken over as 'artistic director' at the house.

By Kerry McDermott

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Sister Act: A Closer Look at the Quietly Influential Life of Catherine Dior

By Laird Borrelli-Persson

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On paper, Catherine Dior is an unlikely heroine. Born into the prosperous Dior family in 1917, the youngest of five children, she seemed destined for a decorative existence. But when the family’s fortune suddenly vanished due to failed real estate ventures, a life of leisure seemed far less inevitable. In 1935, the teenage Catherine moved from the family’s stately home in Granville, Villa Les Rhumbs, to a dilapidated farmhouse in Provence. She soon escaped to live with her older brother Christian in Paris, selling accessories for a fashion house while he peddled his sketches.

When World War II broke out, the siblings returned to the South of France and grew vegetables that they sold in nearby Cannes. It was there, after Christian had returned to the capital in search again of the “atmosphere of chiffon,” that Catherine would meet and fall in love with Hervé des Charbonneries, a married father of three and member of the Resistance. As Justine Picardie relates in the new biography Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Catherine’s life then took another unexpected turn: By 1941, she had joined the Resistance, using the code name Caro. A recent novel by Christine Wells, Sisters of the Resistance (William Morrow), imagines the lively underground circuit that surrounded Catherine in Paris at this time.

From left: Catherine Dior during World War II; Justine Picardie’s new book, out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October.

Caro was arrested in 1944 and, after being repeatedly tortured by the Gestapo (she never betrayed her comrades), was sent to a French prison that had been commandeered by the Germans. A frantic Christian appealed to the Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, who attempted without success to have Catherine released into his care. Instead, that August, she was delivered to the women’s concentration camp, Ravensbrück, only to be transferred to further abysmal camps: Torgau, Abteroda, and finally, in 1945, to Markkleeberg. As the Allies approached, the detainees were sent on a death march, from which Catherine managed to escape. Apart from testimony she delivered against her torturers, she almost never spoke of her trials.

When Dior debuted his history-making New Look collection on a cold winter day in February 1947, it was in a room scented with Miss Dior—a perfume, as he imagined, that “smells of love.” As lore has it, the fragrance obtained its name when, in the middle of a meeting between Dior and his muse and colleague Mizza Bricard, Catherine walked into the room. “Ah, here!” Bricard exclaimed, “Miss Dior!” The same name would be given to a strapless “mille fleurs” evening dress, first shown in 1949. Meanwhile the real Miss Dior built a quiet life away from the world of fashion, living on her farm in Provence and selling flowers—alongside des Charbonneries—at Paris’s historic flower market, described by a giddy American reporter in 1954 as “an enchanted garden under the vast glass domes of Les Halles.” To this journalist, the market was a colorful, sunlit bubble, but the Dior siblings knew that the reality was messier, that it’s no easy feat to conjure life from soil—or cloth. For all the soft romanticism of the New Look, it was achieved with a rigid inner architecture. When her brother died in 1957, Catherine was named the “moral heir,” responsible for safeguarding his artistic legacy—a task she approached with great meticulousness, preserving the contents of his home down to his pack of playing cards.

Catherine and Hervé des Charbonneries after the war.

Despite shunning the spotlight during her life, Catherine is now being ushered into it—not just with these new books but in a flora-­inspired spring 2020 collection from Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri that was dedicated to Catherine and a 2021 bag deemed “the Caro.” Picardie’s book is of the moment, too, celebrating an unsung hero at a time when female influences are earning new acclaim. Nonetheless the elusive sister may remain largely unknowable. Unlike her brother, Catherine never wrote her memoirs, preferring to let her actions speak for themselves. When she was asked by a young veteran about her wartime experiences, her mantra was simple: “Love life.”

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