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The Esprit Dior exhibition aims to present Dior haute couture…
...from a historical, cultural and artistic perspective.
Christian Dior has an especially rich artistic history because in his youth…
…his first job was as head of an art gallery.
Christian Dior had the insight to exhibit…
…already famous artists like Picasso, Braque and Miro at his gallery…
…and their renown allowed him to also exhibit young talent…
…such as Dali and Giacometti, who went on to become famous.
This exhibition is quite rich in multimedia pieces.
There are haute couture dresses as well as a large number of drawings,
etchings, photos by Patrick Demarchelier, and other artists' work.
You're going to see that from just a quick tour of the exhibition.
It's truly a journey through the spirit of Dior,
which shows all the influences in the creation of haute couture.
Without going into the details,
there is some of the nature and garden theme so important to the Dior spirit,
the foundations of his style, the famous idea of the woman-flower,
the association between the beauty of a flower and the beauty of woman.
Christian Dior was attracted by two visions of nature:
on one hand, this idealised nature, characteristic of a French garden,
a tamed, ordered, geometric nature.
On the other hand, he also liked very natural nature, fields of flowers,
the nature you see in Impressionist paintings.
These two views of nature can be seen in his creations.
Both simple, airy dresses and sumptuous dresses reminiscent…
…of what would have been worn in the Gallery of Mirrors at Versailles.
In 1947, Christian Dior sparked a real revolution by…
…going back in time to the grandeur of France,
that magnificent style of Versailles in the 17th and 18th centuries,
of architecture, decorative arts, paintings, "art de vivre",
a model for the entire world that was subsequently copied.
The height of sophistication, beauty and aesthetics.
Marie Antoinette was the queen who set styles and created trends.
She was looking for a sort of return to nature…
…inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Haute couture is something specifically Parisian.
All professions involved in haute couture are searching for perfection.
I think that really is the word that defines these professions.
And the Dior spirit is constantly searching for beauty,
looking to create prefect harmony between fashion, dresses, perfumes,
bags and the period in which they are created.
It's finding a balance between the spirit of the time and the spirit of the Maison.