I Am Just A Little Obsessed With Mr Dior!
Behind the seams of a vintage Dior dress
I love the apparent architectural simplicity of Christian Dior’s designs. They’re deceptive though and far from straight forward! Engineered to fit and flatter the female form, cut to perfection in beautiful fabrics, defined by a moment in time, yet timeless too … I could go on and on!
“My dream? To make women happier and more beautiful.”
CHRISTIAN DIOR
A sketch of a Dior inspired dress © Sarah Willard Couture
In only ten years from 1947 - 1957, Dior became the “go to” couturier. Despite the austerity of the post-war world Dior had just one obsession: to allow women to rediscover joy, elegance and beauty. He redefined fashion, and in doing so captured the imagination of women the world over.
“Deep in every heart slumbers a dream and the couturier knows it: every woman is a princess” .
CHRISTIAN DIOR
My personal adoration probably stems from his new look silhouette. I am very definitely pear shaped and the bell skirted silhouette hides a multitude of sins, it is the perfect cut for me.
And I cannot be the only one who has been to the V & A museum and longed to be able to turn all the beautiful dresses inside out, to understand what it is behind the seams that makes them so incredibly special.
A Dior Sketch on the stairs, V & A Museum
The Garden Room, Dior Designer of Dreams at the V&A Museum
There was a solution! For years I typed in Vintage Dior Couture Dress into eBay, not really expecting my search to yield any results. One day my luck was in and I fell completely and utterly in love. I really wasn’t sure that my bid was high enough to win, and even when I did whether the Dior suit would be mine. Luckily it’s previous owner wanted it to go to a good home where it would be treasured, and that’s where this story begins.
My beautiful vintage Dior silk suit
A vintage Dior silk cocktail dress
It’s not in museum condition - there are loose threads and the silk has become threadbare in places, but nearly seventy years after it was made for its original owner it is still beautiful.
One of the advantages of owning my own Dior is that I’ve discovered that I can turn it inside out and analyse how it was made!
So here’s some of the couture secrets behind my beautiful vintage treasure.
Made in England Christian Dior Label, with it’s serial number
My suit was made in England, by Christian Dior London. The London branch of Dior in 1952 in Stratford Place (just off Oxford Street) with workrooms in Maddox Street. The London collection was based on the Paris haute couture collections but modified for a British clientele. I like to think that is wasn’t diluted for British taste, but better!
The suit is made in a pewter slub silk dupion, interlined with silk organza to give it structure and shape. Petticoats of silk organza and tulle support its silhouette. The jacket is tailored, even in a fine silk it has structure, and the edges roll beautifully.
Hem detail of a Dior silk jacket
The dress is interlined with silk organza, with silk organza and tulle petticoats
The dress has an internal cotton bobbinette corselet, boned with spiral bones, that will bend in any direction in wear, but also support the wearer and the garment.
Inside a vintage Dior cocktail dress
A spiral corsetry bone
And so that the corselet can be altered to fit the owner perfectly there’s lots of seams, allowing plenty of opportunity to make alterations.
The corselet even has “Hollywood darts”, horizontal darts between the bust points at right angles to the boning that allow the corselet to fit closely to the sternum.
The corselet is fastened with hooks and eyes
Hollywood darts, seen between the bone casings towards the top of the image
The straps are attached to the internal corselet, which is hand sewn to the top of the dress. Beautiful hand sewn bar tacks support the dress and corselet at the back. The corselet fastens with hand sewn metal hooks and eyes and is attached to several layers of petticoats in tulle and silk organza
There’s lots of hand sewing in the dress - the beautifully stitched hooks and eyes, the hem, the top of the placket and herringbone stitch secures the facings in place. Machine stitching is used for strength and also for support - you can see the rows of machine stitching on the zip facing.
The dress has a coordinating jacket with a typical 1950s “kimono cut“ sleeves, with an underarm panel and gusset to allow for ease of movement.
The jacket of a vintage Dior cocktail suit
Sleeve underarm panel and gusset detail
The jacket is fastened with beautiful mother of pearl buttons and exquisite bound buttonholes. The collar is cut with the centre back on the bias, allowing it to roll beautifully.The waist is tucked into hand sewn pleats, a detail that is also echoed at the cuffs.
Mother of pearl buttons and bound buttonholes
Shoulder darts and the centre back of the collar is cut on the bias
The waist is tucked into hand sewn pleats, a detail that is also echoed at the cuffs. Metal press studs around the neckline suggest that there would have been a detachable collar detail, sadly lost in time.
Press stud detail onside the jacket neckline
Hand stitched tuck detail at the waist of the jacket
And now for my favourite detail! The dress fastening on the skirt is hidden so that the back zip wouldn’t show below the jacket when the suit is worn.
The centre back skirt fastening is hidden in a pleat
The zip is only attached to the dress as far as the waist, below that the fastening is hidden by concealing press studs in the turn of a pleat.
The dress has seven weights sewn into the hem to stop it billowing in the breeze ( just like the dresses made for the Queen!)
Have I worn it? Absolutely! It took me to The Goodwood Revival and I cannot even begin to tell you how elegant it made me feel.
PS. Over the next few months I am going to create a Dior influenced design from scratch, and blog as I go. There! I’ve said it, so it will happen now!
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