11 November, 2017

House of Dior Exhibition

I made it to The House of Dior Seventy Years of Haute Couture the second last day of the exhibition and 
I'm so glad I did. It was fabulous.
The Atelier (studio or workshop).
One of the highlights was meeting Catherine. Catherine is one of the Parisian Artisans at The House of Dior. I could very easily have sat and listened (through an interpreter) to her all day. She had some fascinating stories about what it is like to be in the Atelier. Someone asked Catherine 
how long it took to study to get to be able to do this 
kind of work. It was thirteen years of study!
 Demonstrating a sleeve. 
That little dark bag is Catherine's sewing kit. She kindly showed us the different sizes of pins and needles she works with, along with the different kinds of threads. I have never seen such fine or heavy pins as she had.
 These are some examples of her handstitched button 
holes. Look how perfect they are.
 Everything in a garment is stitched by hand. 
This is the red coat made by Catherine. 
You can see her working on it in the background. 
This one took her about 160 hours to make. 
Some dresses can be up to 180 hours to make.
 Only one seamstress will work on each dress.
Looking down on the Atelier.
 Watching fashion shows on the large screen.
 You could then go an see the actual dresses.
 These are a couple of my favourite dresses. 
Just the style I love!
 A close up of the embroidery. It was all so perfect. 
They are all gold stitches, not gold ribbon.
 More embroidered dressses.
 A close-up of the embroidery on the dress above.
 Then there were the shoes.
And the hats.
 Aren't these gorgeous!
 
 Perfume bottles.
 This was Miranda Kerr's dress for her wedding to 
Evan Spiegal earlier this year. 
 
Those are appliqued embroidered 
sprays of lily-of-the-valley.
Yves Saint Larent gowns.
John Galliano gowns.
The chartreuse gown was worn by Nicole Kidman 
to the 1997 Academy Awards.
 
There were so many amazing gowns. 
Just out of interest, did you know that the models had 49cm (about 19 inch) waists!

6 comments:

Lin said...

Hi Christine. Thank you for posting all these lovely pictures - what an amazing exhibition. My niece went recently as her husband was the woodworker who make the table and shelving but did not send me many pictures.It is amazing how much work goes into those garments. xx

kiwikid said...

I heard this exhibition was amazing to see...I could see you wearing some of those dresses Christine. It is incredible the amount of training required but then they do incredible work. Thanks for sharing your day.

Maria said...

Such a wonderful exhibition for you to havebeen able to go and visit ..
Lots of pretty dresses 👗 just your style.
Love all the hats...
Sew special you could talk to Catherine and watch her work.
Those hand sewn buttonholes are sew precious.

Ondrea said...

Wow! What a stunning exhibition! Must have been lovely to see all the designs up close. Now, when are you ordering your next dress???

Baa. xxx said...

Wow! How amazing!

Karen S said...

I have to agree with you. It was an amazing exhibit to see. I loved every part of it and was impressed with how everything was displayed.