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Pierre Cardin
Christian Dior is surely one of the most famous fashion
designers of this century. Born in Granville, France on
January 21st, 1905, he first worked as a fashion
illustrator, then as a design assistant in Paris for both
Lucien Lelong and Robert Piguet. The "Corolle Line" or "New
Look", as the fashion press called it, was his first and
most revolutionary collection. It was a collection that was
characterized by it's rounded shoulders, shapely emphasis
of the bust, cinched waist, and curvaceous bell-shaped
skirt in luxurious fabric. As opposed to its common name,
this collection was not new, but bore a striking
resemblance to French fashions of the 1860s. In fact, Dior
himself admitted having been inspired the elegant clothes
his mother used to wear in the 1990s. Dior, with his new
silhouette, is responsible for the re-establishment of
Paris as the world's fashion capital, after it had lost
it's importance during World War II. Nonetheless, there
were many criticism of the New Look from the feminists who
accused it of being an attempt to constrain women back to
an oppressed, decorative role, and from others who were
shocked by the extravagant use of ornament and fabric
meterage since clothes were still being rationed. After
this collection, Dior created many more, all continuing the
highly constructed clothe theme of the first. In all of his
ten years of fame, Dior never produced one failing
collection. His most unstructured collection, the "Lily of
the Valley", was a young, fresh, and simple collection,
created as a reaction to Chanel's comeback in 1954. Before
his death, Dior was able to make his name a synonym of
taste and luxury.
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