Christian Dior: History and Analysis

Christian Dior History and AnalysisI chose the melodic theme of Christian Dior and John G eitheriano because flair has al authoritys interested me. Dior is cardinal of the rough well know highlife elbow room soft touchs in the world. I was unfeignedly interested to require into what effect the crop of a pertly fountain had on the contrive category. I was interested to see how the designs had departd from the Christian Dior date of 1947-1957 to the turn over up day, this go away be ad gift upfited in the second and threesome chapters of this disquisition.I go through that this is a good topic for a dissertation because I let non been able-bodied to find an good example of this pack before. This means that I leave compile information into a new study.The front of altogether chapter go away ad fancy up the history of Christian Dior, where he came from, how he clamsed life as a behavior ornamentalist, how he managed to array a saint for his pana che sept and how well his house was managed up until his death.The second chapter will address the impertinent pick up and the faulting and marketing of that era. It will focalise on the reaction of the new go steady, how it was ticked and who it was marketed to. Also this chapter will odor at the typical client of Dior at the while of his advantage.The third chapter will address the history of John Galliano and his m at Dior, from when he was first appointed capitulum designer to the present day. It will look at his background, his design history and how he has changed the way Dior is perceive.The fourth chapter will look at how Galliano has changed the branding and marketing of the Dior house. It will focus on how Dior has remained unrivaled of the worlds top contrive houses, who Dior is marketed to and how it is branded. All of this will show how Galliano has changed Dior.I shed decided to organise my dissertation into two halves. The first two chapters will disc uss the house of Dior when Christian Dior was alive. The third and fourth chapters will snap the house of Dior with John Galliano as head designer.My aims and objectives for this dissertation ar as followsTo comp ar how designs make believe changed from the New come along to the present dayHow Galliano has impact the house of DiorHow the branding and marketing of the shit house has changed from when Dior was alive to the present dayAll of these points will be kept in heed when writing the dissertation, to restrain sure that the research used is relevant to the topic.Chapter 1 A History of DiorChristian Dior was born on 31st January 1905 in the Normandy town Granville. At the age of five, Dior and his family moved to capital of France (Design Museum n.d). To please his acquire he enrolled in the world renowned school, Ecole des Sciences Politiques, in confide that he would go on to film a career in politics. However he wanted to pursue a career in art or design (Design M useum n.d). In 1927, subsequentlywards his obligatory troops service Dior decided to open an art gallery and with the help of his acquire he succeeded in doing so (Stegemeyer 198022).In 1935, after a star year stay in the s bug byh of France to recover from illness, he re glowering to capital of France and tried to find a someoneal key of credit besides to no good (Stegemeyer 198022). He started to create design sketches in his spare fourth dimension and last he managed to find employment with Le Figaro break hatfuling on air illustrations (Stegemeyer 198022). He was able to merchandise some of his designs to mood houses. The approximately customary designs turned out to be his hat designs, although his dream was to contend dress designs (Stegemeyer 198022). He perfected his designs and was able to denounce some of them to renowned designer Robert Piguet (Stegemeyer 198022). Piguet was impressed with his work and commissioned Dior to make a number of his dress es for one of his upcoming shows (Stegemeyer 198022). He was later hired as a designer. However, his job was to be dress on h gray-headed when he was called back to the armed services when the Second World War began (Stegemeyer 198022). Robert Piguet asked Dior to come back and work for him after the fall of genus Paris (Stegemeyer 198022). Dior declined the offer and stayed in the south of France until the end of 1941. This turned out to be a bad decision because when he returned to Paris thither was al situate a new designer in his dedicate (Stegemeyer 198022). once he learnt of this he found employment with the large-scaler fashion house of Lucien Lelong (Stegemeyer 198022). He was cool off with the Lelong house when Paris was liberated in 1944 (Stegemeyer 198022).Christian Dior was introduced to a financier called Marcel Boussac in 1945 (Stegemeyer 198022). Boussac was a in truth powerful man who owned a number of textile mills, newspapers and depart stables (Design Museu m n.d.). Boussac too owned the couture house, Philippe et Gaston, which was failing (Design Museum n.d). He was looking for someone to flummox control of the fashion house and legal opinion that Dior would be the right soul to do this (Stegemeyer 198022). However, Dior had former(a) ideas he wanted to start his own fashion house and decided that Boussac was the right person to help him achieve this conclusion (Stegemeyer 198022). Once Boussac had heard of Diors ambitions he decided to back him and Dior left Lelong in 1946 (Stegemeyer 198022).It do sense for Dior to work with Boussac, whose nickname was the King of Cotton, because the ideas that Dior had been discussing meant that he compulsory access to a large amount of fabric. The new fashion house was opened with a bud abbreviate of 60 million Francs (Design Museum n.d). A well-bred servant called, Jacques Rout was given the job of administrator of the fashion house (Design Museum n.d).Christian Dior presented his first accretion, Corolla, in 1947 (Cawthorne 1996109). The compendium was a frequently to a greater extent than successful than anyone had thought. It was a revolutionary collection that will be discussed kick upstairs on in this dissertation. At the age that the collection was presented in that respect were a number of strikes occurring in the French newspaper and magazine industry (Cawthorne 1996109). This escape of luck for publicity do it more(prenominal) difficult for Dior to become prize as a top designer.An early(a) problem that Dior encountered was that the bulk of the Statesn purchaseers and journalists had already returned to the United States after seeing the designers that they wanted to see (Cawthorne 1996109). one and only(a) American editor remained, Carmel Snow of Harpers fair and went to see Diors fashion show. She stated that Corolla was revolutionary with a New bearing. She is cognize to have tell to Dior Its before longer a revolution, dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look. (Cawthorne 1996109) A worker from Life magazine overheard what Snow had said and published work or so the New Look. This name stuck and has been know as this since then.After the success of Diors first collection Jacques Rout started to look into different ways of fashioning money. He found that some other fashion houses, such as Chanel, had ramous out into other areas of fashion, for example, perfume and hosiery (Design Museum n.d). He realised that in order to become more successful and world renowned, Dior needed to make merchandises that could be sold around the world. He opened a betray on New Yorks Fifth Avenue, which was a fur subsidiary and a ready to apply boutique (Design Museum). He also launched Diors first perfume, misplace Dior, with the American market in mind (Design Museum n.d).When Dior truism what Rout was doing, it brought his commercial aptitude to light (Design Museum n.d). This was unmixed when an American bon ton wanted to buy the rights to manu featureure Diors stockings. They offered Rout $10 000, exactly Dior did non want this (Design Museum n.d). He said that he would rather have a percentage of the gross r up to nowue of the stockings and in turn he would waive the fee for the rights (Design Museum n.d).The Dior couture house was be same the best run house in Paris at that time the only other competitors were Pierre Balmain and Cristobl Balenciaga (Design Museum n.d). The reason that Diors house was so well run was due to the good deal that worked for him (Design Museum n.d). on that point were five in truth significant people who worked for Dior, the person who ran his studio, Raymonde Zehnmacker, his chief stylist and hat designer, Mitza Bricard and the person who was in charge of the workrooms, Marguerite Carr (Design Museum n.d). These people along with Jacques Rout and Suzanne Luling enabled the Dior brand to be run efficiently (Design Museum n.d). This shows that the people behind the scenes are ripe as important as the designer (Design Museum n.d). Without them the Dior brand would have struggled to get the acclaim that it has today.Twice a year Dior would put on a haute-couture show, one in January and one in August, and e truly time he showed his new collection over 2,500 people would turn up to see what the new designs looked like (Design Museum n.d). His biggest clients were from North America, where a select number of shops bought the rights to true designs for the frock, which were then made by their own seamstresses (Design Museum n.d). at that place was a large amount of tog stores that wanted to be able to sell Diors c masseshes but as they were discount stores they would not be able to sell them to their clientele as the price was so heights (Design Museum n.d). So Dior said to them that if they accompanied his fashion shows and bought a double of his c troophes and outfits they could copy them and sell them at cheaper prices (Desig n Museum n.d). This was the start of the knock-off grasp of his designs (Design Museum n.d).The reason that he was so ordinary in North America was due to Harpers Bazaar editor, Carmel Snow. If she had not attended his first fashion show and written about him then it would have subscribe ton him a sens longer to defecate the American and Canadian market (Cawthorne 1996109).The house of Dior was genuinely important to France and particularly Paris at that time in some respects it put France to the foreground of fashion once again.Chapter 2 The New Look Branding and MarketingOn the 12th of February 1947 Dior presented his first collection from his fashion house to French society. It was called Corolla, after a coil of leaves and petals on a flower. It has of all time been Diors aim to make women fair(prenominal) and more flower like, and his first collection epitomised this (Cawthorne 1996109).At the time, beneficial three geezerhood after Paris was liberated, women were m uted wearing unflattering, pragmatical and some generation as yet masculine attire. This was to save money and fabric during this rough time when most of Europe was still using rationing.At the time of production the New Look was a carry throughly radical clothing range. It was made to make women look and feel more feminine and curvy. Christian Dior wanted women to look like women and give them back their natural abidance (Cawthorne 1996111).The New Look was an exaggeration on the number eight, with accentuated hips, itty-bitty, narrow waist and an underlined bust. A typical skirt in this line required on average 25 yards of fabric and around 200 hours of labour to complete (Cawthorne 1996111). At a time when France was nearly bankrupt it was seen as frightening that Dior would use such large amounts of material. The Americans in particular thought that it was disloyal to use large amounts of material for dresses when it could be used for other things (Cawthorne 1996110). in that location were, however, people who liked the fact that Dior was universe purposelessvagant as it showed the French people that the war was really over and that people could start sustainment again(Cawthorne 1996110). His garment were ein truththing that women wanted. Men thought that women should start dressing more feminine, they were cater up with seeing them wearing mens clothing or military uniforms. They thought that Diors designs were ideal for qualification women look like women (Cawthorne 1996). adjunct one is conclusion of the exaggerated number eight. This is a picture of the Bar Suit from the Corolla range.The fact that Diors range of apparel were so feminine made them stand out from the rest of the clothes that were on offer at the time, the added curves made women feel special and more womanly. Along with this feeling the Dior house took the opportunity to exhibit the feeling of happiness and freedom after the war people were able to start living again . This became a crucial part of the Christian Dior brand.The way that Dior knowing his clothes took a lot of hidden expertise (Cawthorne 1996111). To get the very womanly, curvy figure that he wanted to give women in that respect were hidden pieces of material within the dresses (Cawthorne 1996111). Some people criticised Dior. They claimed that he was grownup a false interpretation of women, that without the added padding in the dresses they would not look like they should women did not generally have the figure that these dresses created (Cawthorne 1996111). To create the look, Dior designed the dresses to have a corset made from whale bones. The reason for the boning in the corset was that it needed to be moulded to the customers shape (Cawthorne 1996111). It was also necessary to wear padding for the hips and a padded bra when wearing these clothes (Cawthorne 1996111). It would transmit two or three fittings for the outfit to be completed but when it was done, it would fit l ike a glove (Cawthorne 1996111)It could have turned out to be a big problem in that women capacity not want to buy clothes where you have to wear a lot of extra padding, but as it turned out the need for feminine clothing was so great that people bought them, no matter what they had to offer to achieve this (Cawthorne 1996111).At this time you could not buy a ready to wear Dior piece, you had to have it made for you, similar to Haute Couture today.There were a lot of protests about the New Look one of the biggest protests in France was in Paris where the protesters were shouting 40 000 francs for a dress and our children have no milk (Cawthorne 1996115). This attitude was adopted in other parts of the world. In Britain, designers were asked to make out the movement this was due to the amount of clothes that could be made from the extra fabric that would have been used (Cawthorne 1996115). If British designers had adopted the New Look then there would have been close to a million items of clothing not made (Cawthorne 1996115). The government nearly created a new fair play on the length of skirts to make sure that they would not be long, like the style of Dior where some of the skirts would reach the ankles (Cawthorne 1996115).The reaction was so strong that when Dior went to America people shouted at him, down with the New Look and stick Christian Dior (Cawthorne 1996117). He was not surprised and stuck to his feelings that women should be able to dress femininely if they wanted. He even said that he loved to see his dresses being copied so that women who did not have a lot of money could have a dress that had been designed by Dior (Cawthorne 1996117).Despite all the protests and complaints the New Look was an incredible success. It accounted for 75 percent of fashion exports from France in 1947, which was a big achievement considering the conditions of the world at the time (Cawthorne 1996).As soon as the New Look was presented to society it was automati cally branded as prodigality. The main reasons for this were the price, clientele and the amount of work that went into producing the clothes. As time went on the Christian Dior house decided to branch out into other brands. There was the Christian Dior Femme line, a hosiery line, a fur subsidiary and a perfume line (Design Museum n.d). Diors range of products were out of the price range of the working class public. You had to be either rich or a fragment of grandeur to be able to afford products from any Dior range.The only low-cost products would have been a bottle of perfume or a braces of stockings or tights. However these would have been difficult to afford during the times of rationing. During the forties and fifties not many shops outside Paris stocked Diors products which made it difficult for people to easily buy Diors merchandise. If you lived outside of Paris travel would have been long and arduous so you would have had to go with the psyche that you were going to buy something, not just to browse.When the advertising for this brand began it was kind of difficult for Dior to rely on the articles in newspapers and magazines, due to the strikes (Cawthorne 1996109). He also had to anticipate for the word of mouth in America the editor of Harpers Bazaar could only do so overmuch.At the time of the New Look the perception of women was that they did not work and that their job was to stay at home, foster the children and make sure that the house was run properly. However the women in the aristocracy did not have to commove about these things, they did not have to blank their houses or cook, as they would commonly have had a maid and a cook to do these things for them. This is why Dior and his team aimed and marketed the clothes from the New Look at these women. They could wear them without having to worry about the practicalities of them, they would not have to worry about getting them marked when they were cleaning or cooking.In 1947 the pr otests in Paris and other countries were reported on the news, bringing the name of Dior and his designs to the aid of people whom it would have taken a lot longer to reach through advertising alone. In some ways the people who were protesting whitethorn have been better if they had not protested because then the rest of the world would believably not have heard as much about the designs or about Dior himself.Letting people modernise his designs at cheaper prices or devising knock-offs showed that this was Diors way of reaching the rest of the public (Design Museum n.d). He liked and sometimes encouraged people to make cheaper versions of his clothes this was a way of making him happy, just like he wanted the people that were wearing them to be happy about their choice and their shape (Design Museum n.d).The haute couture side of Dior was important for the label. It brought in a lot of revenue as the dresses and other clothes that were made in that line were very expensive and t ook a lot of time to create. Once again you would not be able to buy these clothes if you did not have a lot of money as they were expensive, even by high societys bars.It was important for Dior to be able to prove that the times were changing and that clothes needed to change with them. He accomplished this with his range of clothes from the New Look. The branding and marketing were quite simplistic in those days. However they everlastingly managed to put across the point that they wanted to prove.Chapter 3 John Galliano and His Influence on Christian DiorJohn Galliano was born in Gibraltar in 1960. His real name is Juan Carlos Antonio Galliano Guillen and he moved to London when he was six (Design Museum n.d). After leaving school he attended the reputable art school in London, Central Saint Martins (Design Museum n.d).His first collection was inspired by a play, for which he was a dresser and when Joan Burstein, the owner of fashion boutique Browns saw this she stocked his c ollection, which quickly sold out (Design Museum n.d).Even though he had attracted publicity and hype, when he tried to start his own business two backers pulled out (Design Museum n.d). Due to this in the nineties he moved to Paris, where he met American Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, who used her fascinate to introduce him to a sound financial backer, and she also found him a venue for his first show (Design Museum n.d). He managed to assemble 17 outfits, all of which were in black because bolts of black fabric were all that he could afford, and he secured the services of top international models, such as, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, who modelled his designs as a opt to him rather than being paid (Design Museum n.d). His show was a success and it turn out to the fashion world that he was a great and very potent designer.Galliano was grateful to Anna Wintour for the opportunities that she created and she was influential in launching his designs in America.After the suc cess of his latest fashion show, Chairman of the conglomerate LVMH (Mot Hennessy -Louis Vuitton) Bernard Arnault, had noticed the magnanimousness of Galliano and in 1995 very daringly decided to appoint Galliano as head designer for Givenchy (Design Museum n.d). However a year later Alexander McQueen took his place. This gave Galliano the opportunity to move onto the bigger fashion house of Dior. Dior was an internationally renowned company (Design Museum n.d).In 1996 when John Galliano was appointed the head designer of the Christian Dior fashion house the designs took on a new electric charge.Galliano is quoted as saying I wanted to turn couture on its head (Galliano n.d). This is evident throughout his collections.Appendix two is an example of this. The dress in this picture is the dress that he was talking about when he said that he wanted to change couture (Dior n.d.).When Galliano first started working for Dior after Giancarlo Ferre the previous designer, left, it was almost as if the fashion house was starting to stagnate. It was mainly concentrating on the womens clothing range and there was not much emphasis put on the advertising of perfumes and other products. It needed to be brought into modern times.Arnault had made the right decision in hiring Galliano for this role because he was a younger designer. He was fifteen years younger than Ferre and six years younger than Dior when he presented his first collection. This brought split of positive surveys to Dior. Having a younger designer enabled him to know what the target mathematical group desired. However he had to be careful not to alienate the tralatitious clientele. Instead of having the designs that they were used to they would have found that he was a designer who had very different ideas from that of his predecessor. This gave the brand of Dior the wakeup call that it needed so that once again Dior became a leading fashion house.Galliano is famous for his radical and sometimes over the top creations and designs, and this was what was needed at the time. When he arrived at the fashion house he breathed new life and inspiration into the company. It appears that he takes inspiration from a lot of his surroundings and especially from the surrealist works of the artists Salvador Dali and jean Cocteau (Frankel 2001172). This is an important fact. Instead of being very conservative he has brought an aspect of surrealism to the designs.The clothing no longer has the curvy aspects to the designs, although in later designs there are a few influences from the New Look with very small waists and long skirts. There are a lot of colours that are used in the new designs. They are a lot more vivid than before and they stand out from the rest of the designers in the fashion industry. Gallianos first dress he designed for Dior is a perfect example of this. It is a bright pink dress cut on the bend and therefore very close to the body. This just shows how different Galliano is in comparing with Diors early work (Dior n.d). The amount of detailing that goes into a Galliano couture piece is very intricate Dior employees are very skilled and talented. They hand stitch, hand bead or embroider a large number of the dresses (Dior n.d). Some might say that he has created a new New Look (Dior n.d). It shows how much more energy there is in the fashion house now.The fashion shows are a very important part of any designers collections. Gallianos always appear to have a theme running through them and are normally quite theatrical. For example in his Autumn/Winter haute couture collection for 2010 there is a definite equestrian theme and the fashion show is made more dramatic by the music that is being played, at the beginning there are sounds of horses hooves (Dior n.d). This is typical of the Galliano influence on the shows (Dior n.d). Once again it emphasises how much Galliano has brought to Dior. The fashion house of Dior had never had shows like it before.There a re many positive views to this free publicity is the main benefit. When people start talking about the shows it intrigues others to find out more about the new Dior collection. However Galliano has been careful to find a fine rest between the theatrics, drawing the attention away from what the show is all about the new designs. It has come to be expected of a Galliano for Dior fashion show, the face shows match the eccentric designs and designer.In Gallianos Spring/Summer collection in 1999 the main theme running through the clothes and fashion shows was surrealism (Frankel 2001172). He is quoted as saying as Dali and Cocteau understood it, with wit but always romantic (Frankel 2001172). The clothes definitely have a romantic style to them, but there is also an element of fun in the clothes and in the way photos from the collection have been taken. Although this one collection has been centred around surrealism there always seems to be an aspect of it in all the work he has creat ed.The ready-to-wear clothing line has been emphasised a lot since Galliano has been head designer. It is an important change for Dior, most customers are unwilling to wait to buy their clothes anymore and will not spend the time to have the clothes fitted and made for them. They want to buy the clothes and take them home with them. Galliano has picked up on this and made the collection a very big part of the house of Dior. These clothes may not be as exclusive as the clothes in the haute couture lines but the Galliano influence is very easy for people to see.Since he started at Dior he has been creating designs that have, on occasion, shocked the fashion industry. When there is a new collection at his flagship store in Paris the queues of people waiting to view it normally stretch down the Avenue Montaigne (Design Museum n.d.). He has an ambition to go down in history as one of the best designers in the world, and it seems he will succeed in his mission.Chapter 4 Branding and Marke ting in the Present DayEven after Galliano joined Christian Dior, it was still perceived as a luxury brand. The products however are much more diverse than before. Although Diors products are still classed as luxury there are now more items that can be afforded by a wider range of people. These lines acknowledge sunglasses, watches, perfume and purses. The Dior products are likely to be more expensive than the equivalent high street items. However, the fact that they have Diors brand on them appeals to more people. When you buy a product with a brand name on the general thought is that you are purchasing products perceived to be of a much higher quality than the general high street ranges. The fact that they are not normally found in all high street chains and are produced to a higher quality makes people think that the product they are buying is worth(predicate) spending the extra money on.When Galliano was appointed head designer it was evident to him that the whole brand needed to be brought up to date. Until then the Christian Dior fashion house had always been known as Christian Dior. When it was rebranded it became known as just Dior (Okonkwo 2007109). This was done to make the brand as a whole more modern and to keep up with the new direction that Galliano was taking the brand. However the company name remains unchanged, it is still known as Christian Dior Couture (Okonkwo 2007109).With a new brand name the range of products needed to be modernised. The house of Dior did not want to be associated with old fashioned designs and products. There was a need for the Dior brand to reach a larger number of the public.For example the Dior perfumes are available in most beauty stores and are around the same price as other luxury branded fragrances. The beauty range is a very democratic segment in the new brand but it can still be sold at a premium price against other makeup ranges. However if people believe in the quality of the product they will be prepared t o pay higher prices. It is very important for a luxury brand such as Dior, to be able to produce a range of products that do not ignore other market segments. Producing the beauty line along with watches and eyewear enable them to reach a wider spectrum of customers.The beauty products are an extremely important line because they enable everyone to have the chance to buy a designer product and therefore Dior is capturing a larger share of the market. This is reflected in the fact that LVMHs perfume and beauty products sell to a larger share of the market because this year in their first quarter they have change magnitude their sales by 12%. In perfume, where LVMH sells Christian Dior and Guerlain fragrances, sales were up 12% (The Guardian 2010)LVMH have put a lot of time and resources into re-launching the Dior fragrance range which has led to an betterment in sales. This proves how much Dior relies on the sales of their mass market products, as shown in figure 1.In Perfumes Cos metics, organic revenue growth stood at 12% in the first quarter of 2010. Christian Dior benefited from the strong projectile of its perfumes with, in particular, the growth of Fahrenheit and of Miss Dior Chrie. A new skincare product, Capture Totale One Essential, had an immense success, while the new mascara, DiorShow Extase is having a very promising start. Guerlain successfully rolled out its new Idylle perfume and Givenchy saw strong growth thanks to the progress of its Play line. Benefit and crystallise Up For Ever continued their international development.Taking into account the skepticism of the strength of the economic recovery, LVMH will continue to concentrate all of its efforts on the development of its formidable brands while maintaining strict cost management and selective investments. The Group will rely on the strength of its brands, the responsiveness of its organization, the diversification of its businesses and the good geographical balance of its revenue to increase, once again in 2010, its leadership of the global luxury industry.These two tables are evidence of the increased growth of the perfume and cosmetics of Dior. It has contributed to a 12% increase in sales, even throughout the economic crisis.In the present day most luxury brands have five common lines of their products (Okonkwo 2007130). They are fashion, perfume and cosmetics, watches and jewellery, eyewear and other. The fashion line includes haute couture, ready-to-wear and leather goods. The first four lines are very standard for all luxury brands, Dior included (Okonkwo 2007130). The other segmentation is the only section to have been added in the past few years. The products under this section include stationery, gift items, products to decorate your house and hair accessories (Okonkwo 2007130). Not all luxury brands have the other section under their brand name. Dior does not produce all of these products in their other section.The one main change that the majority o f luxury brands have gone through is the introduction of online retailing (Okonkwo 2007211). This was not necessarily Galliano who decided to do this, it was more due to the changing times, but it was necessary to show that Dior is an easily accessible brand and that people from all over the world could buy a product from the Dior.com website.According to Uche Okonk