Dior: The Haute Couture House from Paris

Inspiration from Other Artists

I love going to the art museum. Especially when they exhibit things I wouldn’t normally be able to see unless I travel far from home. A few weeks ago, my mother and I went to see the Dior From Paris to the World fashion exhibit at the Denver Art Museum (DAM for short). We both loved it. If you don’t know, Dior is a haute couture fashion house. A literal translation of haute couture would be “high dressmaking”. I other words high end fashion made custom for you.

A thing you need to know about my mother and I is that we love to sew. We went to an heirloom bag class last night to learn how to insert lace with a wing needle and decorative lace. You can see my partially finished bag below. My mother learned to sew from her grandmothers and her mother. One of the grandmothers sewed for a living. She made quilts, wedding dresses, clothing and ball gowns. She did a lot of it by hand too. These techniques were passed down to my mom and she’s now passed them down to me. Going to this exhibit just sparked my imagination for clothing design and sewing. I have so many projects that have been sitting in the closet begging to be finished. I guess for now with my schedule one project a weekend will have to do. This is the problem of having many interests.

A Little History About the House

The Dior exhibit was wonderful. Not only did we get to see fabulous fashion, we learned about the history behind the haute couture house. Christian Dior first owned two art galleries and after the war devastating the family wealth he took up fashion illustration to support himself. From he went on to work with other haute couture houses until he opened his own house in Paris. His first collection the “New Look” brought back feminine aspects and curves to clothing compared to the restrained boxy look of the ‘40s. He was praised for bringing back the feminine form while others rebuked him for such wastefulness of fabric. Either way his house would lead the world in fashion for years to come. Dior fashion house.

For this post I just want to show you all the beautiful fashion and a few of my thoughts on the pieces. As usual, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to take pictures of the artwork or not at museums, so I don’t bother bringing my camera along. The pictures below were taken with my phone, I’m sorry for the low quality. Enjoy the works of art and hopefully you’ll be inspired to create something from them.