AFFLIGÉ ISSUE 01
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Born on the 21st of January 1905 was one of the most influential designers in today’s fashion history, Christian Dior. Although we were only graced with his original designs for 10 years after his sudden death from a heart attack in Italy on the 24th of October 1957. Dior moved with his family to Paris when he was just 5 and studied legal science at college. Once he had completed his studies his father brought him a gallery as he knew how artistic he was. He later had to close it down due to the great depression and his father’s business collapsing. He later was deployed to the military for 2 years between 1940 to 1942. Dior started working for Lucien Long with Pierre Balmain after he returned home, where he learned about the running of a fashion house. In December of 1946, he founded the fashion house, Christian Dior, at the location of 30 Avenue Montaigne Paris. The Christian Dior name became famous from his iconic ‘Carolle’ and ‘Huit’ released in 1947 collection which was later called ‘New Look’ because of the Harper’s Bazaar editor. The collection was released in 1947 and was quite controversial for the time due to both good and bad reasons. At this time the world was still recovering from WWII, which ended in 1945, meaning that the economy was only just starting to get back and the men were returning from the war. Fabric was in short supply after the war but this didn’t stop Dior from
using around 13 yards per garment. As well as this many women protested the idea of him trying to get women to wear restricting garments again. This came about because during the war the women had to take on the roles that men usually would do, in turn, they started to wear trousers and more comfortable clothing. Women fought back against Dior as they didn’t want to give up their newfound freedom and independence. The ‘New Look’ garments drew inspiration from the make of men’s clothing but with a feminine aesthetic and look. It was the first garment that created a ‘figure’ without the use of a corset, which was a big step for fashion at this time. The ‘New Look’ featured a Bar Jacket and an A-Line skirt which was also inspired by the La Belle Epoque fashions. Amongst Dior’s other famous designs are the iconic tulip silhouette, zig-zag optical illusion skirt, shorter collared jacket, H-Line, A-Line, Y-Line, and finally less fitted suit silhouettes just before he passed away. Since his passing the Christian Dior name has continued strong and has been run by Yves Saint Laurent at the age of 21, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano Bill Gaytten, Raf Simons and most recently Maria Grazia Chiuri. Maria is the first woman to be the head designer for Dior and has brought more feminine ideals to the brand and debuted with the iconic feminine t-shirts in 2017. Some of the house codes that Dior is now known for is the oblique (diagonal) pattern, hounds-tooth pattern, cannage pattern, bee motifs (because of his love for his garden), the saddle bag (designed by John Galliano), J’Adore, and most recently political/slogan t-shirts.
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Gracia Chiuri
Maria Grazia Chiuri was born 2nd of February 1964 in Rome Italy and would later become the Creative Director of Dior. Chiuri is the first ever female creative director for Dior since it’s founding in 1946. She is known for her feminism ideas and designs pushing the idea of female strength. Her debut collection at Dior in 2017 was made up of plain white graphic tees featuring feminist quotes. Her first design role was at Fendi in 1989 where she was apart in creating the baguette bag and in 1999, she joined the Valentino as an accessories designer. In 2003 she co-designed the Red Valentino diffusion line and in 2008 became the co-creative director alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli until she joined Dior as the artistic director in 2016 (Chen, 2018). One of her themes she uses in her designs is collaborations with other artists, which was shown beautifully in Resort 2018. She took inspiration from artist Georgia O’Keefe and Lascaux Cave art while getting correct permissions and being respectful to their origins.
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“WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS”
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FEMI NISM
Maria Grazia Chiuri
is iconic for including strong feminism and female strength in her designs, the most well known being her white slogan tees pushing ‘we should all be feminists’. This isn’t always as in your face as the slogan tees it is also shown in the beautiful silhouettes she uses creating a beautiful feminine shape for women to wear and feel powerful in. I believe that as she is the first-ever female creative director for Dior it has pushed her further to show the strength of females and push feminism. Many celebrities have joined Maria by purchasing Dior’s plain white feminist tees and wear them in social media posts and out in person. Some of these celebrities who have been involved include Rhianna, Kendal Jenner, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, Travis Scott and many more.
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HOUSE CODES +
ARTIST COLLABORATION Along with silhouettes Maria Grazia Chiuris’s designs for Dior has been her way of paying homage to their house codes. As seen in the 2018 Savage collection she uses an A-Line silhouette, which Dior is known for, in most of the garments and she implemented the uses of tarot cards as well. She didn’t just use any tarot cards she added a pinch of her ideas into it by using the ‘mother peace’ tarot card, paying tribute to her feminist beliefs, personality and continuing to empower women.
Another key to Maria Grazia Chiuri designs is doing a lot of collaborations with other artists and designers to bring their work to life in her own designs and in a Dior way. The patterns used on the fabrics in the 2018 Savage collection were an adaptation of Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings and the Lascaux Cave Art. This can be troublesome if not done properly and in the right light. Maria is very careful to ensure that all parties are being respected in her new designs and get all of the proper permissions needed.
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A Resort Collection, also known as a Cruise collection, is a collection released between the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter collections. It is made up of a wide range of garments that will cover all 4 seasons: boots and sandals, coats and summer dresses, pants and skirts. The resort collections are the big money makers for brands as it will stay available for purchase a lot longer than the ready to wear collections and due to the garment’s versatility with weather, they are less likely to get discounted. They are different each year with reference to the current seasonal trends. Resort collections were originally created to target the elite who were going away on holidays. This is why it has such a range of clothes, allowing for people who holiday in the snow or at the beach with one collection. Post COVID-19 I believe that the Resort market will boom even more than it already is. I think this because people haven’t been able to go for holidays for so long everyone will be dying to get their hands on the newest and best goodies in the fashion world. There may also be new avenues to investigate in the between periods of more high-end lounge wear for people to wear while at home and sharing across social media. The Dior Resort Collection from 2018 was set in a desert and included an array of western-inspired designs, ancient cave paintings adapted to fabric, and fabrics inspired by paintings by Georgia O’Keefe. I believe these influences were selected because Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by and loved the designs that were included in the original piece. That includes the shapes, colours, and overall meaning behind the work. One of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s most common design elements is collaborating with other artists to produce patterns and fabrics which she then includes in the Dior Collections.
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S A U V A G E
Pairing Dior with denim feels wrong as you don’t usually think of denim as a high-end or couture fabric. Denim is usually associated with street-wear and was originally used for the working class, not for people in high society that would be usually buying Dior. But the difference between normal denim and Dior denim is how well it is constructed, which gives it that high-end label. They have implemented denim into silhouettes and designs you don’t normally see denim made into and make
it with the utmost care and precision. They have combined the iconic Dior Toile de Jouy pattern with denim and made a whole line based on that alone with an amazing campaign following it. Throughout the Savage Collection in 2018 denim was also incorporated into jackets, skirts, and in some cases even hats. Although it may not be thought of like a match made in heaven the implantation of denim in Dior works and has paid off for the company.
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The brand ambassador for this campaign will be Australian actor Jacob Elordi. He was born in Brisbane on the 26th of June 1997, now 24 years old, and became well known when he played one of the leads in the film Kissing Booth on Netflix. Since this film, he has been a part of the sequel to the film Kissing Booth 2, 2 Hearts and is also a lead in the hit TV Show Euphoria, alongside Zendaya. I decided to use Elordi as the brand ambassador because of the hat that I drew inspiration from for the final design. He has been featured on a range of magazine front covers including ODDA, GQ, Wonderland, VMan, and Man About Town. He was a part of the Calvin Klein campaign in March of 2021 which can still be seen on trams around the Melbourne CBD. On the red carpet, he is often seen wearing a button-up top with the top few undone paired with dress pants and dress jackets, but he isn’t scared to tap into a more flamboyant style as well. To style in a way that Elordi would be seen in it I will incorporate some button up tops and tailored pants but will add more layers of more Dior products like sweaters and accessories. I also will include product like high neck sweaters paired with denim and a variety of boots and sneakers.
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GET
Toile de Jouy Midi Skirt $4,700 Toile de Jouy Cap $450 Christian Dior Polo $2,000 Christian Dior Socks $450 White Lambskin Sandals $450 CD Pearl Earrings $1,100 CD Navy Bracelet $770 Gold J’Adior Broach $770 CD Navy Ring $570 J’Adior Ring $570
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DIOR X JACOB ELORDI EXCLUSIVE MERCHANDISE
Complimentary Denim Tote bag
TRAVEL MUG $470
Silk J’Adior scarf $540
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