Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams


Gorgeous exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the designs of the Dior couture house.

This is a wonderfully designed show with the clothes shown in beautiful settings with good use made of mirrors to show of the exhibits and make the space feel larger. It is a bit of a crush because it’s so popular with a few bottle necks, but on the whole it’s easy to see the clothes even if you can’t read the labels. To be honest I was so blown away by the outfits that I stopped reading the text. I didn’t care what they were, they were beautiful.

The show covered all the designers who have work for the house but I did find Dior himself came across best. His outfits were what you think of as classic feminine clothes particularly the formal wear. It is what you would draw as a little girl!  John Galliano wasn’t going down so well with the slightly older clientele in the day time but I loved their fantasy feel.

It’s quite hard to describe specific bits of the show as it was all so luscious. I loved the section on clothes with a historic theme set in and around a pagoda based on the design of a scent display and incidentally perfume was well covered in the show. There was a display of clothes inspired by flowers in a garden with blossom hanging from the ceiling.

There was a room of toile’s, the garments made up in white cotton to experiment with the shapes. Pulling everything back to one colour really let you compare shapes. That was followed by a rainbow room of accessories and miniatures of the clothes. It took the opportunity to talk about the accessory designers who have worked with the house. I want the shoes!

A special mention has to go to the ballroom set at the end which was packed with evening wear around the edge and on a display in the centre. The light effects and projections on the walls and ceiling changed as you went round so you saw the clothes in day light and moonlight. Such a beautiful effect!

Closes on 14 July 2019

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