RETRO VISION
After multiple trips to Paris, countless hours scouring the archives and more mannequin fittings than she’d care to mention, the National Gallery of Victoria’s senior curator of fashion and textiles Katie Somerville can safely be crowned Australia’s pre-eminent expert on all things Dior. From the New Look to a new artistic director, she shares a little of what she’s learned during the making of the new exhibition The House Of Dior: Seventy Years Of Haute Couture.
IN A WAY, BOTH CHRISTIAN DIOR AND MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI’S WORK IS BORN OUT OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION. CAN YOU SEE PARALLELS IN THEIR WORK?
Both are very interested in the idea of who’s wearing the clothes and what those women’s lives are like, what they aspire to. Christian Dior was about recognising what the women of that post-war period were desiring. Maria Grazia has spoken about wanting to appeal to a younger audience and [her aesthetic] has a more playful, almost fairytale edge to it, but she looks to the traditions of Dior and revisits everything from the Bar
jacket to his love of astrology. The atelier is central: an incredibly skilled group who can help translate a creative director’s ideas to final form, so it’s interesting that the atelier at the moment is structured as it was established in the ’40s, with about 60 staff split across two areas – tailleur, which focuses on structured garments, and flou, which is more lightweight fabrics and dresses.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO DELVE INTO THE DIOR ARCHIVES?
Dior Heritage is one of the most immaculate storage facilities I’ve seen for fashion. It’s a recent phenomenon – previously, museums and galleries collected pieces, but now all the fashion houses themselves have realised it’s critical. Creative directors love going into the archives and looking at key pieces. There was this great moment on a recent trip to Paris to see Maria Grazia’s first couture collection. There was one piece that was remarkable – an embroidered, strapless evening dress – and when I visited the archives they showed me the original ’50s embroidery sample that sparked her whole creative journey towards that piece.
WAS GETTING ARCHIVAL PIECES TO MELBOURNE A CHALLENGE?
It’s familiar territory for us because it’s what we do, but the scale of this project is in a different league. It’s over 140 outfits RUNWAY REVOLUTION Christian Dior fits a model in the ’50s; (left) a 1947 illustration of the iconic Bar suit and then another 50 or more accessories – including the extraordinary millinery of Stephen Jones, who’s been creating all the hats for the house since 1996. The garments have to be transported a particular way, they have to be documented extensively and handled as we would any of the works that are coming from other collections.
WERE THERE ANY DIOR FANS WHO WANTED TO CONTRIBUTE?
There’s a client of Dior who lives in Sydney who’s lending one of the pieces she had made in the ’90s by John Galliano. We’re also borrowing from fashion journalist Hamish Bowles, who has been amassing an extraordinary collection since his teenage years and has some very exciting early Christian Dior pieces as well as some from the Yves Saint Laurent period.
HOW, IN YOUR MIND, IS CHIURI MOVING THINGS FORWARD FOR DIOR?
I imagine it would be a very difficult thing, the presentation of that first collection, with so much expectation on you and inevitably the sense that you want to respect what and who have gone before you, but also be able to articulate very clearly from the outset the thing that is distinctly yours. I think that was evident in the first collection, those particular silhouettes, the beautiful, very wearable dresses, and the subtle colour palette. It’s exciting to see her going forward. Ultimately, her work will have great appeal but also relevance to new audiences in terms of couture. The House Of Dior: Seventy Years Of Haute Couture is on now at the NGV; ngv.vic.gov.au