All Photos By Gail
Maria Grazia Chiuri (born 1964 Rome, Italy) is the first woman to be appointed artistic Director at Christian Dior. She established herself as an activist designer with the slogans she incorporated into her first ready-to-wear collection, most famously “We should all be feminists,” from the title of a 2014 essay by Chiamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Alchimiste Ensemble For House of Dior
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Yves Saint Laurent was hired was hired as Christian Dior’s assistant designer in June 1955. When Dior suddenly died in 1957 — even though he had expressed a desire for Saint Laurent to succeed him — the fashion house’s management was initially hesitant about putting its empire, which by then accounted for more than half of all French haute couture exports, in the hands of a 21-year-old.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Trapeze Summer Dress By YSL for House of Dior
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The La Sylphide Gown, designed by Charles James, was worn by Miss Esme O’Brien when she came out as a New York debutante in 1937 (a sylph is a lovely, slim young woman or girl).
Continue reading Eye On Design: La Sylphide Dress By Charles James
Fashion In The Space Age (All Photos By Gail)
Over the course of a seven-decade career in design, Pierre Cardin has released collections that have rocketed so far into the future they were once emblematic of the Space Age. For an example of Cardin’s influence in popular culture, look no further than the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons, where Jane Jetson’s styles look as though they could have been lifted from the designer’s showroom.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Red Plastic Bandeau Top and Skirt By Pierre Cardin
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Although Angelo Donghia, was the first designer to put his name on furniture in 1973, Pierre Cardin’s venture in the field was far more successful. Cardin opened a custom furniture shop in Paris in 1975, and in 1977, he licensed his name for furniture, lighting and rugs that translated his fashion aesthetic into designs for the mass market., who didn’t design the pieces himself, felt that furnishings were a logical extension of his brand: and deferred to the pieces as his couture furniture.
Continue reading Eye on Design: Head of the Moon Chest of Drawers By Pierre Cardin