Miss Dior

Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser). 'Exceptional . . . Miss Dior is so much more than a biography. It's about how necessity can drive people to either terrible deeds or acts of great courage, and how beauty can grow from the worst kinds of horror.'DAILY TELEGRAPHMiss Dior explores the relationship between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Justine Picardie's journey takes her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück.Tracing the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and sisterhood. She discovers what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and reveals the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction. 'Extraordinary . . . Picardie uses her investigative reporting skills . . . the result is Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning . . . Catherine's story shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help liberate France.'SUNDAY TIMES

Using words and beautiful archival photos, British Vogue documents the illustrious career of one of the twentieth century’s greatest fashion designers. In 1947, Christian Dior stunned the fashion world with his first collection, the “New Look,” which transformed the way women dressed, and he continued to send shock waves with his later shows, significantly altering the fashion landscape. Vogue on Christian Dior tells the story of Dior’s search for the perfect line and how his unique style and vision of women’s ideal silhouette developed. One of the most famous designers of the 20th century, his name still fronts one of the most successful haute couture fashion houses. Vogue on Christian Dior is a volume from the series created by the editors of British Vogue. It features 20,000 words of original biography and history and is studded with 80 color and black-and-white images from their unique archive of photos taken by the leading photographers of the day, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.

Hailed as 'the most influential female designer of the twentieth century', Coco Chanel pioneered classic easy-to-wear fashion for the modern woman. She arrived on the fashion scene when feathers, lace and ostentatious beads were favourites, and proceeded to re-invent couture using new materials, like jersey, for outfits that were suitable for everyday wear yet still elegant. With original illustrations and images from celebrated photographers, such as Cecil Beaton, Bronwyn Cosgrave traces the story of Coco Chanel's iconic designs and glamorous, racy life. In 1921 Coco opened her Chanel boutique in Paris - still a destination store today - and launched her first perfume, Chanel No.5. Perhaps her most important contribution to the fashion world was the simple, much-imitated 'little black dress' which made its debut in 1926. Other landmark creations include the Chanel suit and the quilted handbag. A testament to her lasting influence, these legendary designs remain as popular today as when they first appeared. Vogue, the international fashion bible, has charted the careers of designers through the decades. Its unique archive of photographs, taken by the leading photographers of the day from Cecil Beaton to Mario Testino, and original illustrations, together with its stable of highly respected fashion writers, make Vogue the most authoritative and prestigious source of reference on fashion. With a circulation of over 160,000 and a readership of over 1,400,000, no brand is better positioned to present a library on the great fashion designers of the modern age.

"This volume showcases the perfumes of Christian Dior against the backdrop of his life--the Belle Epoque of his youth, the "Roaring Twenties" of his young adulthood and the postwar period of his success as a fashion designer and perfumer. From 1946, before his first collection had even been debuted, Dior was interested in perfume, launching the iconic Miss Dior fragrance (along with the perfumer Paul Vacher) in 1947, and later gaining great success with fragrances such as Diorissimo, Eau Sauvage, Poison and J'Adore." -- From Amazon.

The great hats of Dior, as chosen by Stephen Jones, one of the most revered milliners of our times. Christian Dior himself wrote in his Little Dictionary of Fashion: "A hat is essential to any outfit. It completes it. In a way, a hat is the best way to express your personality." Published on the occasion of the 2020 exhibition at the Musée Christian Dior in Granville, France, and authored by renowned milliner Stephen Jones, this volume celebrates more than seventy years of exquisite hats. Opening with a focus on hats designed by Christian Dior himself, the book explores the house's headdresses over the years--from the first millinery of the New Look to Yves Saint Laurent's Venetian masks, the toques of Marc Bohan, dramatic boaters by Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano's extravagant confections, the graphic neck bow by Raf Simons, and romantic designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri. Jones's insightful texts are accompanied by contributions from leading experts and enlivened by drawings and photographs from Dior's archives; shots by famed photographers, such as Richard Avedon, Sir Cecil Beaton, and Craig McDean; and exclusive new images by Sølve Sundsbø.

A powerful collection of photographs and essays by trailblazing women that celebrates Maria Grazia Chiuri's feminine and feminist spirit within the House of Dior. Since being appointed the first female creative director of Dior in 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri has infused the illustrious fashion brand with a strong current of femi-nism. Her approach is at once refreshing and needed, while still paying homage to the avant-garde ethos that has been at the heart of the house since its founding by Christian Dior in 1947. This beautifully produced volume presents 160 images by leading female photographers such as Nan Goldin, Sarah Moon, Brigitte Niedermair, Coco Capitán, Vanina Sorrenti, Julia Hetta, Katerina Jebb, Zoë Ghertner, and Bettina Rheims. The women creators featured among these pages represent the breadth of style and diversity upheld by the Maison Dior. Thought-provoking quotes and poems from inspirational women--Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Linda Nochlin, Claire Fontaine, Judy Chicago, and Tomaso Binga, to name a few--accompany the striking photographs. Showcasing Chiuri's haute couture and ready-to-wear collections from 2017 to 2021, Her Dior captures the creative director's innovations at the house--where, for the past five years, she's reclaimed the narrative creating Dior fashions for women, by women.

Yves Saint Laurent Icons of Fashion Design, acclaimed by the critics as an intoxicating book remains the most attractive homage to the uncrowned king of haute couture. Pictures taken by the world's leading fashion photographers trace the success of Saint Laurent's designs, which, since conquering the fashion world five decades ago, have caused sensation after sensation each year. The book also constitutes a high-quality review of fashion photography over a period of forty years, collecting 135 YSL dresses in images created by fashion photography's greatest 20th century heroes. Yves Saint Laurent was equipped with an infallible instinct for reading the aesthetic signs of the times, and this enabled him to have a profound effect on fashion in the second half of the 20th century.

Celebrating Dior's floral inspirations in fashion and perfume, this unique volume features a portfolio of rose portraits by acclaimed fashion photographer Nick Knight. For Christian Dior, perfume was "a door opening into a hidden world." His first, Miss Dior, inspired by the lush gardens of his childhood home in Normandy, forged an inextricable link between his fashion and fragrance creations. Other scents were inspired by evenings in southern France, lit with fireflies and scented with jasmine. The rose bowers of his family home in Granville; his old mill country house; and the Château de la Colle Noire near Grasse--where jasmine, tuberose, and May roses reign supreme and are still cultivated--inspired Dior's most memorable creations. Flowers were also at the heart of Dior's fashion, from the women-flowers that inspired the late 1940s New Look to the swishing, blossom-like ball gowns embroidered with lavish floral motifs. They have inspired all of the designers who followed him at the House of Dior, from Yves Saint Laurent to John Galliano, and Raf Simons to Maria Grazia Chiuri. This extraordinary volume blooms with color and inspiration, and includes rose portraits by Nick Knight, previously unpublished archival documents, exquisite details of embroidery and fabrics, perfumes, fashion sketches, and sublime fashion photographs.