If you are among the roughly 650,000 people who have already experienced this richly detailed immersion into the maison, you will return to the same sequence of rooms while discovering a new selection of garments that correspond with the art on display. This is also motivated by preserving pieces that are too fragile to remain exposed for extended periods of time.
“We have a duty every six months to change the pieces and this offers us a way to create a new perspective on the history of Dior,” said Hélène Starkman, the cultural projects manager for Christian Dior Couture who walked me through the 13 themes, including The Dior Style, La Parisienne, and The 18th Century Spirit. “The Galerie is only one-and-a-half years old so it’s an amazing playground. It’s a Parisian place, a new space to show acquisitions. We have an opportunity to look further and deeper.”
There is still a darkened room conceived as an enchanted garden where delicate vines cascade from the ceiling; only now, it features Takagi’s painterly life-size photos of model-dancers juxtaposed with dresses on mannequins. There is still the accurate recreation of Monsieur Dior’s office at 30 Avenue Montaigne, likewise the space where visitors can peer down through a glass floor into the old atelier complete with models’ dressing rooms. And there is still the room conjuring a grand ball where mannequins in opulent gowns are standing as though on balconies. Until this exhibition ends on May 13, 2024, they will face Chicago’s immense fabric panels made for the spring 2020 haute couture show.
Among the highlights of the new installation: an expressive room that establishes a link between the past and present. A tribute to Saint Phalle more than her Nanas female figures, there are looks by Bohan, who became both a friend and a collector, and by Chuiri, who clearly embraced the double inspiration for her spring 2018 collection. The walls come alive with Saint Phalle’s drawings and even a vintage Vogue spread by Lord Snowdon who photographed the model-turned-sculptor wearing a slim black velvet look adorned with a flounced white collar.
Jebb’s “scanography portraits”—which entail hundreds of scans composed into spectral images, at once haunting and futuristic—appear in four separate contexts, including a standout series capturing one key silhouette, monochromatic and impeccably constructed, from every creative director.
