The House of Dior celebrated their 70th anniversary as a design house in 2017. Since then, there have been notable exhibitions in Paris, London, and Colorado celebrating the house. The Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the best-done and all-encompassing exhibitions that I have ever seen. Princess Margaret’s gown, the Junon dress, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s showstopper, all highlights of the exhibition. However, there was one section that hasn’t been talked about much. Diorama at Dior: Designer of Dreams is a capsule look at the house as a whole, and is absolutely fascinating!
Dior: Designer of Dreams has been one of the V&A’s most popular exhibitions. Nearly 500,000 people visited the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition in 2015 during a 21 week run. The Dior exhibition opened on 1 February 2019 and by mid-March, over 119,000 people had visited. Originally meant to close in July 2019, it has been extended to September 2019 with extra tickets selling out within hours of being released. (That includes offering early hours and late hours tickets being released on the 15th of each month.) With over 500 pieces included in the exhibition, it is the largest Dior exhibition that has been staged. I will be watching in September to see what the final numbers are!
If you are interested in the exhibition, I have full posts on all of it:
For The New Look, The Dior Line, and Dior in Britain, visit here!
For Historicism, Travels, and The Garden, visit here!
For Designers for Dior and The Atelier, visit here!
For the Ballroom, visit here!
Diorama at Dior: Designer of Dreams
Now, back to Diorama! Diorama isn’t a full section unto itself, but is a Dior goldmine. It ushers you from The Atelier to The Ballroom, and includes clothing, handbags, millinery, accessories, beauty products, and magazine prints from Dior’s 70 years of history.
Side note: If you are familiar with modern Dior, you will know that Diorama is the name of a handbag introduced in 2015. This is not the place to see that handbag, though you can see many others!
The Lady Dior
The Lady Dior is arguably one of the most infamous handbags in modern history. Designed by Gianfranco Ferre, France’s first lady Bernadette Chirac gifted the bag to Diana, Princess of Wales in September of 1995. It quickly became a favourite of the Princess, and known as the Lady Dior in honour of her. Made from 130 pieces of leather, it features cannage stitching and a distinctive D.I.O.R charm and is instantly identifiable. If you have a cool $4,500 CAD, you might be able to get yourself one of the mini-sized Lady Diors… (Or send it my way?)
Miniature Gowns
The gowns included in the Designer of Dreams exhibition are simply gorgeous. The work of the designers is evident, but so is the talent and craftsmanship of the men and women who work on the gowns. And then you arrive at Diorama to find that some of the most breathtaking pieces have been re-created in miniature! I don’t know why these were made, but they are pretty incredible in person. And because this part of the exhibition of is organised by colour, it brings the designs together with pieces from entirely different eras in the house.
This miniature is a perfect recreation of Raf Simons’ Look 10 red wool coat. Every Dior designer has interpreted the New Look in their own way, and Simons’ coat is equally modern and historic. (In both miniature and full-sized, this coat grabs your attention. Dior, you’ve done it well!) I’m going to guess they would also be out of my price range, but I would love to know if one could actually buy these miniatures.
The Garden Influence
The Garden was surprisingly one of my favourite aspects of the show, and I was thrilled t see it in Diorama. I’ve not found any info on this purse, but it is amazing in person. I know that people love their Louis Vuitton and Chanel purses, but I think Dior has been leading the pack in the last 30 years. They pair classic shapes with new designs so well. And while I’m not a big fan of white purses in general, the contrast with the flower petals is spot on.
Also, if you know anything about this purse, please leave me a comment or send me a message!
Dior and Beauty
Luxury fashion houses have been aligning themselves with the beauty and cosmetics industries for decades. Dior is no exception to that. I am personally a fan of Dior’s fragrances, but they are still quite competitive in cosmetics. Sadly, their nail polish bottles don’t look as classic nowadays (and will run you a cool $35 CAD). There was a bit of fragrance in The Garden, but Diorama was the perfect place for it. I loved seeing the Dior classic cosmetic items, and it makes me realise just how much I need to start painting my nails again…
Dior’s Designs
Something I would have loved to see more of throughout the exhibition was Dior’s designs and sketches. They have quite a dreamy quality to them, but have a specific look to them. I’m quite sure that modern designers are still making these sketches from themselves, but I would absolutely purchase these. (If you are going to sell sunglasses and lipstick and extra purse straps and who knows what else, why not designs and sketches of past pieces?) And also, those shoes? I know that Manolo’s supposedly reign in the shoe world but these vintage Diors are pretty spectacular.
Dior in Black and White
If I had a herringbone Dior swing coat, my life would all kinds of wonderful. Herringbone pops up in Dior collections throughout the years, with a near constant presence in their cosmetics. Even my Miss Dior rollerball has a herringbone pattern etched on it, and the scent was released in the last year! The Ja’Dior slingbacks are also a lovely nod to current direction of the house. I’m just grateful black and white were included in the Diorama rainbow.
As of the time of publishing, you have a little under a month to see the exhibition before it closes on 1 September! If you can, find yourself a ticket.
Did you enjoy Diorama at Dior: Designer of Dreams?
Cheers,
The Historian
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