Before long, the Hermès scarf, then crafted from strong imported Chinese silk, became an iconic work favored by actresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, a lifetime enthusiast of the family-owned brand. ![]() Visionary Italian designer Emilio Pucci - the first fashion designer to enter the lifestyle market - introduced abstractions and dazzling psychedelic elements to scarves, while mid-century era multidisciplinary American artist Vera Neumann drew on Japanese techniques to create exuberant textile designs based on her paintings and drawings.Įstablished in Paris in 1837, Hermès didn’t start creating their famously decorative scarves until 100 years later, in 1937. Luxury houses and various designers helped elevate scarves and long, flowing wraps as a desirable fashion accessory during the 20th century. However, the increasing diversity of available materials over the years has rendered this adornment more accessible since their early days. The idea of scarves as status symbols still persists for example, silk scarves, which were favored by the upper class during the reign of Queen Victoria, are an out-of-reach luxury item, cost prohibitive for many consumers. And although now firmly entrenched in western culture, the origins of this neckwear are global.Įgyptian Queen Nefertiti is known to have worn a finely woven scarf with a headdress, and Emperor Cheng of the Chinese Han dynasty presided over an army of warriors whose scarves denoted their rank. Scarves have held a distinctive place in the evolution of formal and casual wear for centuries. Every glamorous go-to ensemble deserves the lightweight finishing touch that can be added with this stylish, versatile accessory. We’ve long had a love affair with vintage and designer scarves. On 1stDibs, find an exquisite range of vintage Christian Dior clothing, jewelry, handbags and other items. With the luxuriously full skirts of his New Look, suits and his drop-dead gorgeous evening dresses and ball gowns worthy of any princess, Dior gave women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of war. In the subsequent decade, Paris ruled as the undisputed fashion capital of the world, and Christian Dior reigned as its king. Rather than rationing, his ladies wanted reams of fabric and 19-inch waists enforced by wire corsets, and the fashion world concurred. They were cut and shaped like architecture, on strong foundations that molded women and “freed them from nature,” Dior said. His skirts could have 40-meter-circumference hems, and outfits could weigh up to 60 pounds. “This changes everything.”ĭior’s collection definitively declared that opulence, luxury and femininity were in. “God help those who bought before they saw Dior,” said Snow. “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, the prescient American editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, famously proclaiming, “Your dresses have such a new look.” The press ran with the description, christening Dior’s debut Spring/Summer haute couture collection the New Look. ![]() They needed to dream anew.Īnd Dior delivered: He designed a collection for a bright, optimistic future. Just two years after the end of World War II, the fashion crowd and the moribund haute couture industry were yearning, comme tout Paris, for security and prosperity, desperate to discard the drab, sexless, utilitarian garb imposed by wartime deprivation. Just five years later, with the backing of industrialist Marcel Boussac, the ascendant Dior established his own fashion house, at 30 avenue Montaigne in Paris. After seven years as an art dealer, Dior retrained as a fashion illustrator, eventually landing a job as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet, and in 1941, following a year of military service, he joined the house of Lucien Lelong. This was the start of Dior’s rise in the city’s creative milieu, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. However, they agreed to bankroll an art gallery, which Dior opened in 1928 in Paris with a friend. His prosperous haute bourgeois parents wanted him to become a diplomat despite his interest in art and architecture. ![]() Vintage Dior bags, shoes, evening dresses, shirts and other garments and accessories are known today for their feminine and sophisticated sensibility.ĭior was born in Granville, on the Normandy coast, in 1905. When Christian Dior launched his couture house, in 1946, he wanted nothing less than to make “an elegant woman more beautiful and a beautiful woman more elegant.” He succeeded, and in doing so the visionary designer altered the landscape of 20th century fashion.
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