IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
The Dior Grand Soir collection unveils nine new one-of-a-kind pieces – inspired by the splendour of fireworks displays so adored by Monsieur Dior
christian dior’s first stay in Paris definitively marked his taste for wonderment. “Every year, we visited our grandparents in Paris. I have some magical memories of those times. I thank heaven for having lived in Paris during the twilight years of the Belle Époque. They have marked me for life,” the French fashion designer once remarked.
The year Maison Christian Dior was founded – 1947 – coincides with the return of seasonal society balls after WWII. The couturier’s friends, including Christian Berard and Count Etienne de Beaumont, organised lavish parties.
“What will philosophy say about parties?” Monsieur Dior asks himself later on, while recollecting an unforgettable evening. “Celebrations of that class are real artworks. Parties are desirable and important because they revive the authentic sense of popular enjoyment.”
Maison Christian Dior profited from this wave of optimism as well as the return of people’s minds to an ideal of happiness. The couturier – who completely trusted the predictions of fortune tellers, who willingly interrogated the moon and who considered all unexpected events to be signs – could only see the blessing of destiny in this alignment of
the stars. “I believe that Alphonse Daudet (the French novelist) one day wrote: ‘I would like my works to make me a merchant of happiness’. In my modest sphere as a couturier, I pursue the same dream. My first dresses were called Amour, Tendresse, Corolles, Bonheur (Love, Affection, Corollas, Happiness). Women, with their unfailing instinct, doubtlessly realised that my dream was to make them not only more beautiful but happier.”
Dior Horlogerie crystallises that ideal of happiness – a thirst for joyful euphoria and sheer bliss – in the Dior Grand Soir Feux d’artifice models. Nine one-of-a-kind pieces display shimmering sprays on their dial that seem to want to illuminate a festive night. This timeless nocturnal fireworks display is expressed by a real explosion of precious stones. Firstly, the ones on the dial: a burst of triangle-cut or brilliant-cut diamonds, blue sapphires, emeralds and tsavorite garnets symbolises the multicolour sparks gathered together by rays of light, whilst gold disks dot this astral symphony with shimmer and shine.
Then the ones on the case; thanks to the amazing feat of an exceptional snow setting, they develop a perfectly controlled shading of colours that extends the halo of the grand finale onto the wrist, a sensation accentuated by the glow of a sequined interweaving of the threads of time and space. On the back of each timepice, “Minuit, ciel de Paris” (Midnight, Paris sky) stands out on an aventurine case-back that glistens and glows like the star-spangled canopy of heaven.
Evoking Christian Dior’s aptitude to transform his reflection on his everyday existence into a magical dream world, the Dior VIII Montaigne Clair de Lune model displays the mysterious and changing faces of the sun star on the dials of its three models. In reminiscence of the supernatural spirit that enshrouded the couturier’s destiny, lace woven with gold thread creates the natural moving relief of the satellite. As the final touch to a timepiece dedicated to the dialogue between the stars, the second hand develops a globe on its wand recalling a gravitating star, whilst on the case-back the smoked glass lets us examine the oscillating weight and observe a metallized moon.
This manifesto of mystery and joy is also expressed by the new La D de Dior Rose des vents imagined by Victoire de Castellane. The ultimate talismanwatch, this year it is displaying two new colours – red and pink – which distil their glow over the dials decorated with an eight-pointed star in white gold. In souvenir of a geometric figure dear to the couturier’s heart, the star twirls to the rhythm of the encounters, dreams and smiles that relate the story of magical nights interwoven with enchanted hours.