Woman’s Dress, “Abandon”, Fall/Winter 1948, House of Dior, Christian Dior, wool plain weave (crepe)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Laura-Lee W. Woods. Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
Transcript
[soft big band jazz music evoking period and mood]
MALE NARRATOR: In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, French designer Christian Dior presented his first collection, which featured structured shoulders, molded busts, cinched in waists, and full, voluminous skirts. After seeing his fashion show, Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Carmel Snow, deemed his designs “The New Look,” because they were revolutionary. Sharon Takeda is the Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at LACMA.
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SHARON TAKEDA: So for Dior, he's starting his house just after World War II, and before that he writes often in his biography, about how he was just tired of seeing women dressed in these kind of uniforms and dull looking not very creative clothing. [soft big band jazz music evoking period and mood] So you can imagine everyone was looking for a kind of renewal and something fresh and it was this extreme hourglass look. During the war, fabric was rationed. So you were limited in how much fabric you could use. But here he was showing these beautiful skirts gathered with yards of fabric.
MALE NARRATOR: This black dress, created in 1948, [end music] embodies his “New Look” aesthetic, with ¾ length split-cuffed sleeves, a small waist accented with a ribbon belt, and long, voluminous skirt. Clearly, Dior did not hold back in his use of fabric. This dress also features a structured, asymmetrical collar that starts narrow, then gets wider as it gathers around the right shoulder.
[soft big band jazz music evoking period and mood]
SHARON TAKEDA: I just admire the silhouette, the look of the asymmetrical collar. When you really get close and you have the opportunity to open it up and look inside––it’s kind of like fashion forensic––you really do start to appreciate what it takes to attain this silhouette, and what tricks or techniques the couture tailors and seamstresses used to bring the designer's idea to life. Anything beautiful that commands the respect particularly of craftsmanship, is something that belongs in an art museum.
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