A few weeks ago, my mom flew to London to meet me for 5 days of girl time and fun to celebrate my birthday. Naturally, one of our first destinations was Harrods, and upon walking in, we soon discovered that there was a Dior Exhibit on. What luck. Well, said luck ended pretty promptly when we strolled in at around 5:15 to find that the exhibit was closing at 5:30, and they were therefore not letting anyone else through that day. They told us to make sure come back the next day as it would be the last day that the exhibit would be on.
So Sunday our 11 am-intended arrival time was delayed to around 3, but we still managed to squeeze in amongst the probable 2,000 other people who had been viewing it that day as well. We approached the wall of perfectly dressed 'Dior-for-Harrods' male tour guides, and were assigned to one who was so excited about everything he told us, it felt as though we were his very first tour, not his last.
Dior was a fascinating man- every iconic piece, shape, color, and fabric of his has a story behind it, which our tour guide described as 'codes'. So cool- so much passion in all of his work.
For Monsieur Dior, there are a few colors that have made continuous appearances in his collections. Each of his staple colors had great significance to him, and still hold value in the house's lines.
Red was the color of success- the more lipstick kisses you had on your cheeks, the more successful you were. SO glamorous. Pink, however, symbolized happiness, femininity and partying...how perfect. White was a 'pure' color, which Dior used for clothing he designed for Audrey Hepburn (the dress above was worn by her). Black was used to convey an air of luxury and elegance (totally using that line the next time someone questions my entirely black wardrobe during those dull winter months).
However, anyone who knows the anything about Dior knows that his favorite color was pearl grey- now dubbed 'Dior Grey'. Dior loved this color because it made the other colors pop. Fabulous. (Check it out next time, all dior mannequins are meant to be pearl grey)
Dior's perfume line 'Miss Dior' is named after Christian Dior's sister, Katherine. She was much younger than he was, and just like Didi from 'Dexter's Laboratory' (throw back to the 90's), she was always getting in the way of his work and knocking things over, so he called her, and eventually his perfume, 'Miss Dior'.
Fragrance was incredible important to Dior. The same day his fashion line launched, his fragrance line launched. He believed that no woman was complete without perfume. He literally wanted to 'dress' women in fragrance, which was the inspiration for the box that came with a perfume from the 1960's that looked like a wardrobe. Dior wanted 'something that smells like love,' and anyone who has smelled the Dior line of perfumes knows that he successfully achieved that. However when the first perfume bottle was finished and brought to him, he felt that there was something missing. He cut a hem off of one of his dresses and tied the iconic bow onto the bottle, and now every Dior fragrance has a bow. It gets better- every fabric bow is hand-tied still by three different women in Paris who have mastered the perfect bow. And for the metal bows- they double as scarf rings! Actually though, this fashion house thinks of everything.
Grace Kelly had her own personal Dior fragrance (casual), and was such a huge fan of the designer that she said she only wears Dior, so her children would only wear Dior. And from this came the inspiration for the line 'Baby Dior'. Again...casual- an entire Dior line inspired by one woman. Jeez.
The J'adore Dior perfume bottle, which I was originally rather unimpressed by, actually holds significant meaning reflective of the history of the fashion house. The figure 8 shape that the bottle has is a shape that has continuously made appearances throughout the Dior decades. Christian Dior felt that the number 8 and an '8' flipped on its side to create an infinity sign were lucky for him, and also resembled the idealized shape of a woman's body. All of these details were crucial in creating the design for the shape of the bottle. The bottle is modeled after a woman- the top is her head, the gold elongated part is her neck (meant to resemble the strength and power of a woman which, in certain cultures, can be discerned by how many gold rings a woman has around her neck, which also elongates her neck), there is a slight indentation at the bottom of the gold portion which is meant to suggest the woman's waist, and then curves out for her hips. Discretely brilliant- I dig. New-found appreciation anyone?
Another important 'symbol' for Dior was the flower. Above is a dress that was made for Elizabeth Taylor. The flower represented a woman, beauty, femininity, and so much more.
This dress, worn by Natalie Portman in the current Miss Dior advertisements is meant to resemble a flower. Unfortunately there was no way for us to see, but apparently from upside-down, the dress looks like a bloom. The colors used in the dress are typically associated with flowers, and the pointillism is meant to look like millions of little flowers as well. So. Many. Flower. References.
The gradient of color was created by using small silk squares that were individually hand-pinned to the dress. Whoa...that takes patience.
Princess Diana was given a gift of one of the Dior bags, and fell in love with it to the point where she ordered it in literally every color and style. Ahem, when do I get permission to do that? Next life I guess... Anyway, Dior named the bag after her because of how much she loved it. The bag, now called 'Lady Dior', is still available today.
The bag consists of 132 pieces, and each one takes about 5 days to complete. The oval shape of the handles and the 'O' in 'Dior' on the keychain is, surprise surprise, another code!
Needless to say, my visit to Harrod's was very educational (if only they taught THIS stuff at school). There's so much more, but those were the highlights for me. I added a few more of the pictures below for you to check out, it was a really incredible exhibit.
And, just to top off our lovely afternoon, the sweetest doorman at Harrods opened the door for us to leave and said 'Thank you for gracing us with your presence, ladies, have a lovely day'. J'adore Harrods, j'adore Londres, et j'adore Dior.
Keep wandering, maybe you'll stumble upon a spectacular exhibit too!
The picture above ('Miss Dior Emotion Inside') was a door that led to a telephone-booth sized box in which the played the Miss Dior advertisement and lightly misted you with the perfume. Everyone came out smelling wonderful...so fantastic.
