Fidélité
Haute Couture Fall-Winter 1949, Milieu du siècle line
It is always an intense moment when the wedding dress appears. It brings the show to a close before the audience’s applause.
“Has she really shown the wedding dress already? I can hardly believe it. She has scarcely left us before the whole world seems to be on its feet. Chairs are scraped back, and there is the sound of tumultuous applause. In the chaos of abandoned chairs and spilt ash-trays, the audience splits up into little groups of people, some of whom nod their heads in agreement, while others dispute some particular point arising from the collection. The little world of haute couture is reunited.” Christian Dior et moi (Dior by Dior), Christian Dior
While wedding dresses had to be white in the middle of the 19th century, because of the symbol of purity they conferred, 20th-century couturiers, including the Creative Directors of the House of Dior, progressively distanced themselves from it. Each of them reinterpreted the wedding dress genre to perfection.
The wedding dress has always been tinged with superstition, both for the model who wears it and for the petites mains who make it. The former believes she is doomed to celibacy while the others hope to find their future husband the following year.
“The girls who work at the dress sew a lock of their own hair into the hem in order to find a husband during the coming year. The models on the other hand pretend that it is unlucky to wear the dress, saying that the girl who models it will never be a bride in real life.” Christian Dior et moi (Dior by Dior), Christian Dior
Fidélité is the perfect example of the post-war wedding dress. It is made of ivory silk satin. Its full skirt in white pleated tulle forms a train over which the satin is draped in the back.
An unknown client posing on the stairs of 30 Avenue Montaigne, wearing Fidélité, for which the appointed saleswoman was Madame Jeanne Priot.
© Laziz Hamani ; © Mark Shaw/mptv ; © Guy Marineau ; © Maurice Jarnoux/Paris Match/Scoop ; © Association Willy Maywald/ADAGP, Paris 2022
