The birth of Dior is the focus of the new period drama series on Apple TV+ “The New Look”which focuses on how Christian Dior and his contemporaries overcame the horrors of World War II and revived French haute couture.

Within a few years of founding his house in 1947, Dior had become the protagonist of the French fashion industry. His designs created an empire, which became the model for the modern fashion business, filled with innovations and collections tailored to specific markets.

Although his career was cut short by his death in 1957, Dior carved a long path in the history of fashion, thanks to his unforgettable designs that glorified feminine beauty around the world. For him, fashion was an emotion. “It cannot be reasoned with,” he once said.

Who was Christian Dior?

He was born in 1905 in Granville, France, to an industrialist father Maurice and mother Madeleine Martine. Christian, was a child who loved gardening and fancy parties and designed costumes for local events and carnivals. However, many say he was moody, silent and prone to loneliness.

The family moved to Paris for his higher studies in diplomacy, but his interests were artistic, mainly architecture, music, drawing and painting. In 1928, he opened a gallery with an antique dealer friend, collaborating with avant-garde artists such as Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray.

After his family lost their fortune during the Great Depression, Dior learned fashion design and began selling designs to magazines and couturiers such as Jean Patou, Nina Ricci, Maggy Rouff and Balenciaga. In 1938 he was hired by Robert Piguet as a designer, playing a role in the romantic fashion that dominated until World War II. In 1941 he joined Lucien Lelong, a leading French fashion house at the time, where he collaborated with Pierre Balmain.

Then came a chance meeting with a childhood friend and director of Philippe & Gaston, a clothing house owned by Marcel Boussac, the French textile magnate, who was looking for a designer to breathe new life into the business. Dior proposed himself as a possible candidate for the creation of his own house, based on the principles of luxury and craftsmanship. It was a suggestion that piqued Boussac’s interest.

That same evening, while walking down the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Dior tripped over a metal star with a hole in the middle. He took it as a sign. The next day he entered Boussac’s office and the two began work. Boussac gave $500,000 for the start-up and Dior settled at 28 avenue Montaigne, which had been vacated by a hat shop.

Dior’s ‘New Look’

Seeking to free women from wartime austerity and shapeless clothing, Dior devised ways to enhance female beauty. His proposal was met with enthusiastic applause and was immediately embraced by such diverse women. The collection featured “outrageous” brimmed hats, dresses with rounded shoulders, and wide, flowing skirts with narrow, fitted waists that drew attention to the female figure. Christian Dior’s New Look signaled a new post-war era of optimism, pleasure and a sense of opulent living returning to normality.

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, christened the first collection of Dior “New Look” and caused the return of fashion, in Paris. Of course, there was also an outcry in the streets of the city, since many who were still fighting after the war, considered the use of precious fabrics excessive.

The business quickly expanded into neighboring buildings, and Dior was the only French couturier to hold significant licenses abroad. It had operations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England and even Syria. In addition to his haute couture and clothing, he also created gloves, jewelry and men’s ties.

Despite his gentle and shy nature, Dior was a natural provocateur, whose drastic changes in silhouette often caused controversy, outrage and numerous headlines, fueling his reputation. “Gossip, even malicious rumors, are worth more than the most expensive advertising campaign in the world,” he said.

His designs were widely copied, even in mass-produced dresses, and became a guide for millions of women around the world. In 1948, the house expanded to a store on Fifth Avenue in New York. In 1951, his staff reached 900 people, while in 1955 Yves Saint Laurent became Dior’s assistant in design.

His unexpected ending

By 1957, his worldwide fame was such that he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The designer usually sought rest and relaxation after each collection, and in October of that year, he went to a favorite Italian spa town, Montecatini, reportedly to lose weight. One night after dinner he suffered heart failure.

“The death of Dior closed a brilliant career, which gave French haute couture and the global clothing industries a boost never seen before,” Balmain said in a tribute.

With the inaugural Trapèze line in 1958, Saint Laurent pushed the house in a new direction. Over the years, the couturier’s successors have included Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri, who in 2016 became the first female creative director in the house’s history.