Dior's first collection, 12 February 1947: the Bar suit, Carmel Snow's New Look, the fabric outrage in rationed London
Dior (@dior) walks at 14:30 in Paris on 29 September. On 12 February 1947 Christian Dior presented his first collection at 30 Avenue Montaigne, in two lines named Corolle and En Huit, and Carmel Snow of Harper's Bazaar named it on the spot: dear Christian, your dresses have such a new look. The suit that carried it was called Bar, a jacket in natural tussore silk over a black wool crêpe skirt, fully pleated on a stiffened taffeta petticoat. Sloping shoulders, a full bust, a cinched waist above full, long skirts; in London, still rationed, the fabric it took caused outrage. In 1960 the house gave the V&A Museum in London a Bar suit, arranged by Cecil Beaton, made in 1955 for a Dior lecture at the Sorbonne. Dior died in 1957, and his last collection that year still referenced the suit.