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Christian Dior SE, is a French luxury fashion house, the world’s largest luxury group.

On 12 February 1947, Christian Dior launched his first fashion collection for Spring–Summer 1947. The show of “90 models of his first collection on six mannequins” was presented in the salons of the company’s headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne. Originally, the two lines were named “Corolle” and “Huit”. The New Look was a revolutionary era for women at the end of the 1940s.

When the collection was presented, the editor-in-chief also showed appreciation by saying; “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” The debut collection of Christian Dior is credited with having revived the fashion industry of France. The New Look brought back the spirit of haute couture in France as it was considered glamorous and young-looking. “We were witness to a revolution in fashion and to a revolution in showing fashion as well.”

The silhouette was characterized by a small, nipped-in waist and a full skirt falling below mid-calf length, which emphasized the bust and hips, as epitomized by the ‘Bar’ suit from the first collection. The collection overall showcased more stereotypically feminine designs in contrast to the popular fashions of wartime, with full skirts, tight waists, and soft shoulders. Dior retained some of the masculine aspects as they continued to hold popularity through the early 1940s, but he also wanted to include a more feminine style.

The New Look became extremely popular, its full-skirted silhouette influencing other fashion designers well into the 1950s, and Dior gained a number of prominent clients from Hollywood, the United States, and the European aristocracy. As a result, Paris, which had fallen from its position as the capital of the fashion world after World War II, regained its preeminence. The New Look was welcomed in western Europe as a refreshing antidote to the austerity of wartime and de-feminizing uniforms and was embraced by stylish women such as Princess Margaret in the UK. According to Harold Koda, Dior credited Charles James with inspiring The New Look.

Dior’s designs from the “New Look” did not only affect the designers in the 1950s, but also more recent designers in the 2000s, including Thom Browne, Miuccia Prada, and Vivienne Westwood. Dior’s evening dresses from that time are still referred to by many designers, and they have been seen in different wedding-themed catwalks with multiple layers of fabric building up below the small waist (Jojo, 2011). Examples include Vivienne Westwood’s Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2011 and Alexander McQueen’s Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2011 (Jojo, 2011).

Despite such protests, the New Look was highly influential, continuing to inform the work of other designers and fashion well into the 21st century. In 2012 Raf Simons revisited the New Look for his debut haute couture collection for Dior, wishing to update its ideas for the 21st century.