Influence on the work of Christian Dior
Madeleine Dior was particularly close to her son Christian, the future couturier: in the eyes of her other children, he was her "favorite" and he followed her everywhere, from her Granville garden to Orêve, her favorite Parisian florist, and the dressmaker Rosine Perrault.[1] Madeleine Dior was a close follower of fashion, as demonstrated by a Roaring Twenties dress that she designed, which is exhibited in the Granville museum.[9]
The couturier remembered his mother when, years after her death, on the eve of his first runway show, he was looking at the façade of the House that bore his name on Avenue Montaigne and exclaimed: "If Mother had lived, I would never have dared."[1] In the same way that we sense the presence of Charles Baudelaire's mother, Caroline, in his work and the influence of Jeanne, Marcel Proust's mother, in his, Madame Dior had a profound effect on her son's entire career.[2] Regarding the Granville house, Christian Dior wrote: "I have the tenderest, most magical memories of it. Not only that; my life, my style, owe nearly everything to its location and architecture," and "...(it) was pebbledashed in a very soft pink, blended with gray gravel, and these two colors have remained my favorite shades in couture."[5] But it was above all his mother's garden that made a deep impression on the couturier. Having spent his childhood learning the names of flowers and their descriptions from horticulture catalogs, Christian Dior drew inspiration from them to create the silhouettes that would lead to his success in 1947 with the Corolle line.[5]
The decor of the Diors' apartment in La Muette, Paris, was also imprinted on the couturier's imagination: reference is made to it in the Louis XVI style which inspired the interiors of the Dior boutiques.[5] Finally, it was Madeleine Dior's look that the couturier remembered when he invented the famous New Look with its nipped in waist, pronounced hips and emphasized bust recalling the feminine silhouettes of the Belle Époque. Long after the couturier's death, the House of Dior continues to pay tribute to this muse, as in the Fall-Winter 2005 runway show, where a Belle Époque-inspired dress was named "Madeleine".[10]
