The luxury fashion book for the holidays: a spectacular large format celebration of 70 years of Dior fashion
A holiday must have!
This 11 x 13 sumptuous book is the ultimate holiday gift. Featuring french fold dust jacket with foil stamping, houndstooth patterned case, both original and archival photography.
Covers 70 years of designers form Christian Dior through the many designers at the helm including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and currently Maria Grazia Chiuri (the House's first female head designer).
It starts with the iconic spring 1947 New Look collection and takes us all the way right up to the newest 2017 collections.
 
 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA
The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture
Text by Katie Somerville, Lydia Kamitsis, Danielle Whitfield.
Milestones of the Dior look from 1947 to now
In celebration of Dior’s 70th anniversary and produced in close collaboration with the House of Dior, one of the world’s most prestigious couture houses, this beautiful publication features garments designed by Christian Dior Couture between 1947 and 2017 and more than 100 stunning images.
The House of Dior explores the story of the fashion house through a series of themes, featuring works by the seven designers who have played key roles in shaping Dior’s renowned fashionable silhouette: Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri. It narrates Dior’s rich history, including Christian Dior’s early influences, insights into the Dior atelier workrooms, the role that accessories and perfume have played in expressing the complete Dior look and the milestones of its six successive designers following Dior’s sudden death in 1957. Highlights include examples from Christian Dior’s iconic spring 1947 New Look collection, magnificent displays of Dior’s signature ball gowns and evening dresses, as well as designs from the inaugural couture collection of the House’s first female head designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Sumptuous in its design, this large-format hardback is led by full-page photography of works, and historical and contextual imagery. Writers include leading fashion writer Lydia Kamitsis and curators Katie Somerville and Danielle Whitfield.
Featured image, of Dior models arriving in Australia for the presentation of the autumn-winter 1957 haute couture collection, is reproduced from 'The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
The Culture Concept
Carolyn McDowell
truly glamorous.... a supreme fashion coup.
The New York Journal of Books
facts and images that have not been exposed in the other dozen or so books.... an insider’s look and assessment of the codes, ateliers, and brand extensions of the house. Even the most well-informed and seasoned reader will find plenty to relish here.
Refinery 29
Landon Peoples
As The House of Dior exemplifies — and visually demonstrates via hundreds of photographs — its creative directors may enter and exit the house having left their individual marks on its ready-to-wear collections, but the heart of Dior will always beat for haute couture
Paper Magazine
Claire Valentine
Dior in all its chic, refined glory.
Gayletter
Christian Eble
This book offers the most comprehensive and meticulously detailed account of the entire history of the house. It’s sumptuous, ostentatious, and avant-garde, not unlike the icon Maison Christian Dior himself.
STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely.
FROM THE BOOK
Excerpt Biography
John Galliano (Creative Director 1997–2011)
John Galliano held the post of Creative Director of Dior Couture for twenty-nine seasons from 1997 to 2011. His appointment was a bold choice, and he became the first British designer to head a major French fashion house in nearly 150 years. One fashion commentator recalled ‘You cannot imagine how shocking it was to appoint him - this was Dior, for heaven’s sake, Dior... can you imagine? A young radical British punk at the firm that represented the arch-tradition of French luxury’.
Despite these reservations, it became apparent that Galliano and Christian Dior had much in common creatively. From his first collection Galliano tapped into the heritage of Dior with his remaking of feminine ideals, deep knowledge and respect for fashion history, eclectic sources of inspiration, spectacular shows and cultivation of the couturier as a public figure. Galliano revisited many of Dior’s established codes, re-casting the New Look silhouette, embracing the designer’s love of the flower as a motif, and working with historical silhouettes, such as those from the eighteenth century and Belle Époque periods. He also integrated his own design sensibility with his modern take on the bias cut, the introduction of extreme forms of theatrical artifice and an overtly post-modern approach to the art of fashion and identity.
“Haute couture dresses have the unique and extraordinary character of art objects,” Christian Dior said. “They are among the last remaining things to be made by hand, by human hands whose value remains irreplaceable for they endow everything they create with qualities that a machine could never give them: poetry and life.” More than eleven inches wide by fourteen inches tall, this beautifully produced, 256-page, seventy-year retrospective of The House of Dior is a dream of fashion scholarship, effortlessly spanning from Dior’s first collection in 1947 through the eras of Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simmons and today’s Maria Grazia Chiuri. You can't go wrong with this Staff Favorite Holiday Gift Book for 2017. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 11 x 13 in. / 256 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $87 GBP £57.00 ISBN: 9781925432336 PUBLISHER: National Gallery of Victoria AVAILABLE: 9/26/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA UK EUR ASIA AFR ME
Published by National Gallery of Victoria. Text by Katie Somerville, Lydia Kamitsis, Danielle Whitfield.
Milestones of the Dior look from 1947 to now
In celebration of Dior’s 70th anniversary and produced in close collaboration with the House of Dior, one of the world’s most prestigious couture houses, this beautiful publication features garments designed by Christian Dior Couture between 1947 and 2017 and more than 100 stunning images.
The House of Dior explores the story of the fashion house through a series of themes, featuring works by the seven designers who have played key roles in shaping Dior’s renowned fashionable silhouette: Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri. It narrates Dior’s rich history, including Christian Dior’s early influences, insights into the Dior atelier workrooms, the role that accessories and perfume have played in expressing the complete Dior look and the milestones of its six successive designers following Dior’s sudden death in 1957. Highlights include examples from Christian Dior’s iconic spring 1947 New Look collection, magnificent displays of Dior’s signature ball gowns and evening dresses, as well as designs from the inaugural couture collection of the House’s first female head designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Sumptuous in its design, this large-format hardback is led by full-page photography of works, and historical and contextual imagery. Writers include leading fashion writer Lydia Kamitsis and curators Katie Somerville and Danielle Whitfield.