30 Avenue Montaigne
Enter the heart of 30 Avenue Montaigne, this “packed little beehive” where the Christian Dior legend was born 75 years ago!
The fitting rooms
On the mezzanine floor was the reception, which opened onto the fitting rooms. A first series of six cubicles decorated with gray curtains served to receive the clients after the fashion shows.
A customer comes for the fitting of her dress for the last alteration in Dior's fitting rooms, 1950.
Suzanne Luling in her flat at Quai Malaquais, circa 1950.
Suzanne Luling
In 1946, Christian Dior appointed Madame Suzanne Luling, who hailed from Granville, like himself, and had made a career in advertising as his sales director. Whatever the time of day, according to the couturier, she was in a “good mood and bristling with energy. She motivates the saleswomen, stimulates the clients and infects everyone with the enthusiasm and health of her bright countenance.” A tiny office was fitted out under the entrance arch to house her two assistants, her files and her telephones.
The days immediately following the presentation of the collections were reserved for professional buyers, who took priority, to order the prototypes that they would reproduce and show all over the world. Next, for several weeks, Madame Luling and her “army of saleswomen,” all dressed in black, would welcome the private clients, for whom fashion shows were organized daily in the salons.
Saleswomen dressed in black
Madame Minassian, head saleswoman, supported by her assistants, reflects on the fashion show plans for nearly 350 customers.
From the salon to the cabine
The latter became “a place to be entertained” by the procession of new designs, before the clients were led to the fitting rooms for their frenzied selection of the suits, dresses and coats that would be made for them that season.
Madame Linzeler and Madame Monique (première), circa 1950.
Madame Linzeler
Madame Linzeler, who had an excellent knowledge of couture, assisted the technical director, Marguerite Carré. She supervised all the fittings and ensured the quality and faithfulness of the reproductions. “With her calm appearance and silvery hair, she has the premières under her thumb, and inspires confidence in the most hesitant client,” Christian Dior recounted.
“Buying is a difficult art. The buyer has to know how to reconcile the needs of her clients with the desire for novelty, and to choose the exact designs that her particular clientele will want from the 170 before her. Her choice is made at the cost of a great deal of hesitation, contradiction, and indecision.”
The custom-made busts are modelled on the exact measurements of the customers to create models adjusted to their morphology.
Mrs Litman and David Granger share the same bust because their body measurements are similar.
A ribbon is always sewed or pinned on the busts of the customers to help the workroom to identify on which measurements to work with and produce the customers orders.
The custom-made busts are modelled on the exact measurements of the customers to create models adjusted to their morphology.
Mrs Litman and David Granger share the same bust because their body measurements are similar.
A ribbon is always sewed or pinned on the busts of the customers to help the workroom to identify on which measurements to work with and produce the customers orders.
Haute Couture creations are made to measure. The ateliers worked on mannequins adapted to the clients’ morphology. Each prototype involved three fittings and took up to two months to make. This is why the Spring-Summer collections are presented in January and the Fall-Winter collections in July.
The hat showroom, circa 1955.
Fashion Salon
From this mezzanine floor, a small staircase descended to the large boutique that opened in 1955 on the corner of avenue Montaigne and rue François Ier. A hall also led to the salon des modes, displaying an array of hats, and to the furs salon.