Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

By Jessie Garten

Open through February 2022 at the Brooklyn Museum, you won’t want to miss out on the New York exhibition Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams. The premiere of this exhibit includes a variety of historical content from the French design house and after a success at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the retrospective has now arrived in New York. While there is not a set time limit, the exhibit takes about an hour to complete.

Curated by Florence Müller, Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art and Fashion, Denver Art Museum, in collaboration with Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture, Brooklyn Museum, the exhibit is beautifully collected to express the legacy of Dior.

Galleries within the exhibit are devoted to not only Dior, but the artistic and accomplished directors following him including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, and John Galliano which each of which have couture on display..

With over two hundred couture garments, photographs, video footage, archival videos, real-life sketches, vintage accessories and perfume, and much more, the exhibition teaches and brings to life the inspiration behind Dior.

An entire wall dedicated to showcasing the excellence of the petites mains.

In a section called "Stars in Dior," you get to see the exact Dior outfits worn by celebrities across time from Lady Gaga to Princess Diana.

The exhibition’s Colorama display celebrates the symbolic palette that Dior uses within accessories, dresses, handbags, shoes, and more and reinforces the sense of a harmonious vision of elegance. This includes pieces spanning from 1947 to 2021 which include some scaled-down copies of original dress, gown and coat designs.

Photography by Jessie Garten