Dior and I
Dior and I, the newly released documentary film, takes viewers back to the Spring of 2012 when Raf Simons was assigned the title Artistic Director of the iconic House of Christian Dior.
The film documents the pressure-filled occurrences behind-the-scenes as Simons created his debut Haute Couture collection for Christian Dior in only eight weeks, as opposed to the five to six months usually dedicated for this task.
The documentary presents a captivating insight into the inner workings of the fashion house covering the creative process of Simons as well as the tireless work of the atelier’s seamstresses. The eight weeks saw personal bonds forge between the collaborators, their work and the heritage of Christian Dior.
In one of the creatively focused storylines of the film, Simons experiments with bringing his passion for art across to his work through a mid-century weaving technique called imprimé chaîne. The artistic director’s vision was to recreate the abstract paintings of American painter Sterling Ruby on cloth, a mission that proved an immense challenge for even the most experienced fabric suppliers and craftsmen.
Aside from an account of the creativity and challenges involved in creating the collection, Dior and I is also an intimate story of a man standing up to the immense shadow of his predecessor. The film follows Simons as he reviews Christian Dior’s archives and memoirs looking for inspiration. It shows Simons visiting Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, Normandy, and reveals great similarities between Dior’s experience and Simons’ own, which prevented him from completing the memoirs. As such the film presents an empathetic exploration of the challenges related to finding one’s own voice while being under enormous pressure.
Christian Dior only led his fashion house for 10-years but his influence on the fashion world was extensive. As Simons himself expressed it “I find it quite challenging to work with a legacy that is so gigantic and so sublime.” When the house of Christian Dior first announced Simons as the new artistic director, many were surprised, as Simons had no experience in haute couture. He was renown for his menswear creations, minimalist style and for keeping a low public profile.
What many had forgotten was that when Christian Dior himself, when he took the fashion scene world by storm in 1947, was a private person that preferred the company of close friends to the noise of the public scene, a trait which Simons shares. In 1956, one year before his sudden death from a heart attack, he wrote in his memoirs “this Siamese twin who precedes me everywhere since I’ve become Christian Dior. He and I have score to settle.” Sixty-five years later Christian Dior’s world continues to thrive in the ateliers where the hard-working seamstresses still hand-sew clothing following haute couture tradition. Christian Dior is amongst the last remaining fashion house’s that have retained such ateliers in-house.
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