You would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't know the name 'Christian Dior' or the fact that he was French, but did you know that the fashion legend was born and raised in Normandy? To celebrate the Dior fashion house's seventieth anniversary this year, the Christian Dior Museum in Granville, the very house in which Dior grew up, is hosting a new exhibition called Christian Dior and Granville: Roots of a Legend, which opened on 8 April will run until 24 September 2017.
On 12 February 1947, Christian Dior gave his first show. It was an unprecedented success in the history of fashion design, instantly making the fashion house the epitome of French haute couture. As part of the 70th anniversary of the Dior fashion house, the Christian Dior Museum is offering visitors a new perspective on Dior's formative years in his home town of Granville.
The exhibition sheds new light on the great fashion designer's life and how his family home in Granville played a key role in inspiring his work. Dior's attachment to his Normandy roots is evoked in the exhibition, and visitors are taken on a historical and stylistic journey. Rekindling the memory of the designer's childhood paradise, the exhibition features around 60 haute couture dresses dating back as far as 1947; both the artistic licence of Dior himself and subsequent directors, who have all remained faithful to Dior's vision, maintaining a connection to his preferred themes and colours.