Dior forever

The Dior exhibition at the V&A opened yesterday and I was really excited about it. I went in the afternoon even though some domestic crisis nearly stopped me from getting to the museum.  Of course it was the worst possible day to go  because  it was the first day and it was packed but I am a member of V&A and will go again, several times in fact. My priority was to get the catalogue and get a first glance. I ended up buying the wrong book, mistaking it for the catalogue - which is now coming in the post - but overall the exhibition did not disappoint and I am so pleased that photography is, for once, allowed.

But...

The curators were keen   to emphasise the Britishness of Dior, a self-avowed Anglophile.  He dressed the late Princess Margaret  - there is a huge photograph of the late HRH in one of his inimitable gowns,  wore Savile Row suits and had a branch of his maison in London. Plus, Galliano, one of Dior's past creative directors is British.  Incidentally, Galliano's exquisitely weird  designs are arresting, they are quite central to the exhibition, though his ignominious downfall is tactfully brushed aside.

I am not sure about this claim to Britishness made on Dior - I put it down to Brexit anxiety. 

Dior, to me, is quintessentially French  even though he may have worn Savile Row suits and may have dressed HRH Princess Margaret and may have admired Gainsborough paintings. He also dressed Princess Grace of Monaco , - would this make him an honorary Monegasque? - and a host of celebrities and divas, including the wonderful Maria Callas.  He may have said he admired English women's style but it could have been tongue-in-cheek or perhaps he meant he approved of the fact  upper class English women wore his designs. Dior has never been affordable, his is haute couture par excellence, so middle class and working class English women could only dream of wearing Dior (or if they were skilled at dressmaking could copy a Dior outfit). 

Anyway, this is a bit of a red herring. 

There is no doubt that Dior was a fashion great - I dislike the overused term 'genius'. But following his passing the  creative directors of Maison Dior have been amazing, talented designers in their own right.  Now it is the Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri who heads the Maison. Hailing from Rome, and a former Valentino's creative director she is the very first woman leading Dior and she has already made her stance clear, dealing with issues like feminism as also  cultural appropriation, which is rampant in fashion and of which past directors of Maison Dior were unabashedly guilty of, Galliano included.

But among all the gorgeous dresses - and there are so many - it is Dior's New Look that really resonates. It's that super elegant look, yet disarmingly simple,  that defined the 1950s. 

So very  contemporary too. 

It's an exhibition worth seeing but please avoid weekends, unless you are happy with pushing and shoving and overhearing the most inane comments.

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams on until 14th July 2019 at the Victoria and Albert Museum

All photos my own, from the exhibition.