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 Ateliers
When it opened in 1946, the House of Christian Dior had only three workshops – two “flou” and one “tailoring”, nestled under the eaves. The success of his first collection, presented on 12 February 1947, prompted the couturier to immediately create two additional ones to respond to the influx of orders. The following year, with the agreement of the House’s owner, Marcel Boussac, a seven-story building was built at the back of the courtyard, where the stables had been, to house further workshops. In 1952, yet more workshops were fitted out above the studio at 13, rue François Ier.
In these Ateliers, each of which had between 20 and 40 people working, but sharing no more than three sewing machines, hierarchy was very important. In an article devoted to the House of Dior, L’Express explained in 1956 that they were composed “of a première seamstress and two secondes, of qualified premières mains, qualified secondes mains, beginner secondes mains, petites mains and, finally, apprentices. Apprenticeships would last three and a half years, during which the apprentices would learn the profession through sewing, but also by being the ‘corridor rabbit,’ running errands between the different departments, and, particularly, back and forth to the stockroom.
Seamstress working on a petticoat for a ball gown, circa 1950.
The quality of workmanship was also what gave Paris its superiority over the rest of the world. Christian Dior was fully aware of this when he wrote that “we must keep up these traditions to pass them down to future generations, […] these traditions which are our luxury and the flower of our civilization.”
“Flou” and “tailoring”
The ateliers of a couture house are divided into two types: on the one hand, the “flou” create the more flowing designs in lightweight fabrics, such as fine blouses or dresses; on the other hand, the “tailoring,” devoted to more structure garments, essentially suits and coats. This technical distinction is one of the foundations of Haute Couture.
Preparation of the Haute Couture Fall-Winter 1950 collection in Christian Dior ateliers.
Preparation of the Haute Couture Fall-Winter 1948 collection in Christian Dior ateliers.
From sketch to dress
The ateliers were true “code decipherers,” to borrow Christian Dior’s description, experts in the exacting work of interpreting the intentions expressed in the designer’s sketches in toile and then in fabric. The House was abuzz with activity. A collection of around 180 prototypes had to be created in little less than a month and a half to be shown on the dates fixed by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the Spring-Summer 1953 collection, Tulipe line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the Autumn-Winter 1956 collection, Aimant line.
Study sketch by Christian Dior for the look Presence from the Autumn-Winter 1957 collection, Fuseau line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the look Saphir from the Spring-Summer 1951 collection, Naturelle line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the look Verdict from the Autumn-Winter 1956 collection, Aimant line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the Spring-Summer 1953 collection, Tulipe line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the Autumn-Winter 1956 collection, Aimant line.
Study sketch by Christian Dior for the look Presence from the Autumn-Winter 1957 collection, Fuseau line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the look Saphir from the Spring-Summer 1951 collection, Naturelle line.
Original sketch by Christian Dior for the look Verdict from the Autumn-Winter 1956 collection, Aimant line.
“Like lifeblood, the creative idea now circulates throughout the whole building. It reaches the apprentices and the seamstresses, and inspires the fingers that are working on the toiles – in short, the fingers that are fashioning the styles of tomorrow.”
A thousand hands
This is how the “thousand hands that mold, cut, assemble, fit, sew, topstitch, everything that I have felt and desired,” plied their trade, as Christian Dior wrote. Faithful to his wishes, the House’s Ateliers, to this day, are the custodians and practitioners of an extraordinary savoir-faire.
A seamstress working on the making of an evening dress, circa 1950.
Fairy tale dresses
“Fairy tales are full of dresses: dresses the color of time; a dress in the hue of the moon. French Haute Couture has never forgotten this,” wrote the journalist Louise de Vilmorin in 1945, in an article entitled Modes nouvelles, bonnes Nouvelles (“Good News, Good Fashion”). “And is it not natural that the workers have fairy fingers to create these fairy-tale inventions? It’s thanks to their striving, their sensitivity, and their courage that our dreams come true.”
All the seamstresses from the atelier working on the Amérique ball gown for the Haute Couture Fall-Winter 1950 collection.
“When success came it affected everybody. If I rejoice in my success, it’s because it concerns my dresses and this joint effort that is a couture house.”