Why Dior is a more important designer than Chanel
Shortly after Christian Dior premiered his spring/summer collection in 1947, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar approached the designer, shocked, and said, “Why, Mr Dior, it’s such a new look.” The name stuck. As the above graph - which shows the number of dresses by different 20th-century designers on display at the V&A - indicates, Mr Dior’s influence on the fashion world is unparalleled. A total of 29 Dior dresses, spanning 33 years, are on show in the museum’s esteemed textile and dress collection, an achievement challenged only by Yves Saint Laurent, who has 26. (Even Chanel, covering twice the number of years, only manages 14.) Having your dress displayed by the V&A is, of course, the equivalent of being inducted into the fashion hall of fame. “The piece must be virtuosic - made to the highest standards of design quality, and show an exceptional degree of craftsmanship,” says Eleri Lynn, a curator at the museum.
Among the more famous pieces to be immortalised by the V&A are Yves Saint Laurent’s black trouser suit - “Le Smoking” - from 1966 and all nine inches of Vivienne Westwood’s “Super-elevated Ghillie” platform heels, which were too high even for Naomi Campbell: she tottered and fell while wearing them on the catwalk in 1993.
PS A big thank you to the data team at the V&A, who helped us source the data for this piece. After a splendid overhaul, the museum’s entire collection is now fully searchable via this brilliant digital archive (which was built on Django).
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