PARIS- La Galerie Dior, the company’s historical flagship in Paris, has attracted 650, 000 visitors since it debuted in March 2022 thanks to its rotating exhibitions honoring its style archives. The area is presently honoring the building’s partnerships with female artists for the first time.
A 1967″ Nana” artwork by Niki de Saint Phalle that depicts Leonor Fini’s long-standing friendship with Marc Bohan during his tenure as artistic director is among the works on display in the fresh present, which will debut on Friday and work through May 13. The painting was previously displayed by leader Christian Dior in his early years as a gallerist.
These ancient functions are grouped with more recent and specially commissioned creations by modern designers like Judy Chicago, Eva Jospin, Brigitte Niedermair, Katerina Jebb, and Elina Chauvet.
During a popup visit, Olivier Flaviano, the director of La Galerie Dior, told WWD that the museum aims to be” a laboratory of kinds” in terms of what we can exhibit these and how it can shed new light on the history of the house.
The purpose of this new show is to demonstrate how fashion can both be an object and a content depending on the messages it conveys. These various information will be conveyed by the various views of Dior seen through the eyes of female musicians, he continued.
Dior surrounded himself with musicians, writers, and painters who had an impact on his work because he firmly believed in democratic affinities. In order to further her female message, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has been the creative director of womenswear since 2017, has added a number of musicians.
Niedermair’s image of the T-shirt with the slogan” We Should All Be Feminists” that Chiuri displayed as part of her debut collection is located close to the entrance.
The Hispanic artist Chauvet, who worked with the artist on a series of dresses that were included in the final piece of her journey selection, which was displayed in Mexico City in May, is honored with an entire room. They carry messages intended to increase awareness of violence against women and are made of white cotton muslin embroidered with dark string.
In an exam, Chauvet stated that” My total work is feminist.” She credited Chiuri with expanding her reach. Her” RedShoes” installations, which feature dozens of pairs of dark shoes placed in public squares all over the world in remembrance of those who have died, have reached 27 different nations.
” A extremely beautiful event occurred with Maria Grazia. It was a joint effort because it appeared as though we had the same serendipity or electricity.
For the exhibition, Chauvet collaborated with some female embroiderers in Mexico to create a new collection of items, including toile versions of vintage Dior jacket designs with phrases like” Mi derecho es decidir” (” It’s my right to choose” ) and” Ni soy de tu propiedad” ( I am not your property” ) They are displayed alongside paintings by Maya Goded.
What did I render of these? I was initially intimidated to consider. However, Maria Grazia and the Dior team gave me total freedom, which I found to be very encouraging, she recalled. ” The place with the attire is amazing.” It is beautiful. I’m incredibly moved by the way they decided to display my work.
Jebb does n’t identify as a feminist artist, but she has worked on several projects with Dior since 2018. She clarified,” I do n’t believe in gender art, so I’m not a good follower of this movement.” ” I believe it is solely about feelings.”
Throughout the museum, the English artist’s digital paintings, which are created by putting together dozens of scanned images, are displayed in different rooms.
In a place that explores various parts of Dior’s ten years in charge of the house, there is her taking on the classic Bar coat, as well as her portrayals of designs created by Yves Saint Laurent, Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and Chiuri.
She describes her approach to clothing as saying,” I try not to make a distinction between Napoleon’s cover, Marie Antoinette, and an old-fashioned Christian couture outfit.” We attempt to reclaim that Proustian thing, but it is extremely delicate. It is a shrine to beauty and the past.
Dior’s well-used head, which hangs by the ancient staircase leading to the room that served as his business from 1946 to around 1952, is one of her most impressive contributions.
Jebb remarked,” I do n’t think it’s particularly flattering, but I do believe it to be true. ” I think that’s a deliberate movement by me to state that all is not perfect. It about is bulging and kind of ugly.”
She was making reference to both the splendor conjured up by conventional fashion pictures and the fact that Dior passed away at the age of 52, when his powers were at their peak.
I make an effort to avoid creating clothing images because I am concerned. If I can, if I’ve been able to make the work a little bit odd and not commercial, I would like it to enter another world, she said. The day spent is what you should reflect on this. The time spent creating those garments took months, and the time it took me to create those artworks took months.
To strengthen its archives and show its dedication to the designers who have worked with the house, Dior has acquired many of the works on display.
According to Flaviano,” We want to help these artists and promote them.” ” Supporting an designer entails commissioning their works as well as purchasing them with the intention of displaying them in a subsequent museum.”
In the ballroom-style area, embroidered banner created by Chicago for Chiuri’s flower 2020 haute couture present are on display, and in the case of mysteries, Lady Dior handbags made by artists like Mickalene Thomas and Joana Vasconcelos as part of the yearly task, are displayed.
The Saint Phalle space highlights a lesser-known aspect of the building’s past. It contrasts three 2018 Chiuri clothes with three original designs created by Saint Phalle’s art collection Bohan.
The black velvet suit she wore in the experimental movie” Daddy” depicts her firing a shotgun at aerosol paint cans is one of his masterpieces. Flaviano remarked,” You can still see small signs of dark paint.”
The life-size images of performers in action wearing vintage Christian designs, each divided into three panels and displayed alongside the appropriate attire, were another highlight, taken by Japanese photographer Yuriko Takagi.
” Dior said that in order for a dress to be successful, you must have an idea of how it will proceed in true life,” Flaviano exclaimed.” These Yuriko Takagi photos actually convey that, in addition to having an intense artistic charge.”
The exhibition’s main lesson is that people have always been important in the Christian household. The Miss Dior perfume was created by the developer in honor of his mother Madeleine and sister Catherine, two French Resistance fighters and survivors of concentration camps.
A 1949 photograph of Dior shows him posing on a stairway with his team people around him.
It shows how surrounded Monsieur Dior was by women, Flaviano said. It furthermore brings to mind Maria Grazia’s beloved notion that the construction of this home is a team effort.