Over time, fashion designers introduced the use of softer, synthetic materials. Once they were considered en vogue, sweaters were no longer strictly made with natural fibers like wool. Simply pair a timeless cardigan with slacks or a skirt and your nicest dress shoes for any occasion, in any season, to tie an outfit together. It wasn’t until the 1920s, however, that sweaters were introduced to the world of high fashion, thanks to pioneering designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin.Ī versatile garment, sweaters go well with most looks - from a casual gathering over drinks with friends to complementing a professional ensemble for the office to a night out at the theater. The knit fabric permitted movement but the material also protected against the cold. Sweaters were an ideal garment for sports and outdoor events in the late 19th century. Later, during the 1880s in America, these knitted or crocheted vests or pullovers - in Britain, “jumpers” - were thought to substantially help athletes shed pounds as needed. In the 15th century, sweaters originated as jersey tunics and other knitted shirts designed to keep sailors and fishermen warm. The vintage sweaters in your dresser may have humble origins, but they can’t be beaten for year-round fashion. On 1stDibs, find an exquisite range of vintage Christian Dior clothing, jewelry, handbags and other items. With the luxuriously full skirts of his New Look, suits and his drop-dead gorgeous evening dresses and ball gowns worthy of any princess, Dior gave women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of war. In the subsequent decade, Paris ruled as the undisputed fashion capital of the world, and Christian Dior reigned as its king. Rather than rationing, his ladies wanted reams of fabric and 19-inch waists enforced by wire corsets, and the fashion world concurred. They were cut and shaped like architecture, on strong foundations that molded women and “freed them from nature,” Dior said. His skirts could have 40-meter-circumference hems, and outfits could weigh up to 60 pounds. “This changes everything.”ĭior’s collection definitively declared that opulence, luxury and femininity were in. “God help those who bought before they saw Dior,” said Snow. “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, the prescient American editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, famously proclaiming, “Your dresses have such a new look.” The press ran with the description, christening Dior’s debut Spring/Summer haute couture collection the New Look. They needed to dream anew.Īnd Dior delivered: He designed a collection for a bright, optimistic future. Just two years after the end of World War II, the fashion crowd and the moribund haute couture industry were yearning, comme tout Paris, for security and prosperity, desperate to discard the drab, sexless, utilitarian garb imposed by wartime deprivation. Just five years later, with the backing of industrialist Marcel Boussac, the ascendant Dior established his own fashion house, at 30 avenue Montaigne in Paris. After seven years as an art dealer, Dior retrained as a fashion illustrator, eventually landing a job as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet, and in 1941, following a year of military service, he joined the house of Lucien Lelong. This was the start of Dior’s rise in the city’s creative milieu, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. However, they agreed to bankroll an art gallery, which Dior opened in 1928 in Paris with a friend. His prosperous haute bourgeois parents wanted him to become a diplomat despite his interest in art and architecture. Vintage Dior bags, shoes, evening dresses, shirts and other garments and accessories are known today for their feminine and sophisticated sensibility.ĭior was born in Granville, on the Normandy coast, in 1905. When Christian Dior launched his couture house, in 1946, he wanted nothing less than to make “an elegant woman more beautiful and a beautiful woman more elegant.” He succeeded, and in doing so the visionary designer altered the landscape of 20th century fashion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |