Guests enter through 11bis rue Francois 1er, to discover a giant twisting white marble stairway, at the centre of an atrium featuring a Diorama of 1,874 Dior objects.
Amid them are 452 robe miniatures – or mini
dresses – from the house’s seven official couturiers: Christian Dior, Yves
Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan; Gianfranco Ferré; John Galliano, Raf Simons and
Maria Grazia Chiuri. All told, 70 different mini dresses spread over seven
decades, dating from the New Look show of February 12, 1947 up
to today. While the objects – whether Lady Di or Saddle bags; J’Adore scent
bottles; bijoux or Steven Jones’ multiple berets – are all made in 3D printing,
necessitating over 100,000 hours of work.
La Galerie Dior is also a tribute to Christian Dior’s first vocation as a
gallery owner. Old black and white photos show him with pals Salvador Dali,
Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau. Designed as a narrative scenography by
Nathalie Crinière, the star curator of Dior retrospectives, La Galerie subtly
unveils the House’s precious archives, from couture to fragrances. There are a
myriad of marvellous dresses from all Dior’s talented successors – with
Galliano and Chiuri having the most spectacular creations. And great
videos of the entire house’s couturiers at work in the atelier, which still
today occupy the fourth and fifth floors above La Galerie.
