Christian Dior

 The Fashion World

Christian Dior

Christian Dior

We all know the name "Christian Dior" and feel 'chic' when wearing his clothes. The fashion shows are a wonder to behold and it's always a good name for the models to put on their CV.

But how many of us know the history of the man and the company?

 Christian Dior was born in 1905, in the town of Granville on the coast of Normandy. At five years of age, the family moved to Paris and being artistically inclined, Christian began to sell his sketches for pocket money. When he left school, his father bought a small art gallery for Christian and a friend, where they sold their paintings and also the work of other artists, one of them being Pablo Picasso. 

After the Great Depression of 1929, Christian's life changed! Both his parents died, his father's business collapsed and Christian had to close the art gallery. It was now, however, when he first came in contact with fashion. He started to work with the fashion designer Robert Piguet until he was called up for military service in 1940. After finishing his service, Christian began working for the couturier Lucien Long, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers.

Christian Dior

The Company "Christian Dior" was founded by Dior himself in 1946. The first fashion collection was shown in 1947, February 12th. This collection presented the 90 different looks. Named "Corolle" and "Huit," these lines were christened the "New Look," which was a phrased coined by US Harper's Bazaar magazine editor Carmel Snow.

Famous stars, such as Rita Hayworth and Margot Fonteyn, bought and wore pieces from Dior's collections and this raised the profile for the "House." The man himself was invited by the British Royal family to stage a private presentation of his collection!

In 1949, Dior arranged licensed production of his designs and this proved profitable for the company. Christian Dior was the first couturier to do this.

Christian Dior

In 1957, Christian Dior died of a heart attack and there were 2,500 people who attended the funeral, many of these were his staff and famous clients, including the Duchess of Windsor.

The company was taken over by many (today) well-known designers (Yves Saint-Laurent being one) and is still going today over 74 years later. It is now a world-wide global brand which sells everything from women's clothes to make-up to aftershave to men's clothes to children and baby clothes. It may seem expensive when compared to other brands but the quality is well worth the money, not to mention the prestige of having and wearing such beautiful designs.

Christian Dior

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 1820-1910

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy. During her life, Florence was often referred to as "The Lady with the Lamp." Florence was a British nurse, statistician and social reformer who was the foundational philosopher of modern nursing.

She was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers in Turkey during the Crimean War, spending many hours in the wards and doing her night rounds.

Her efforts to 'formalize' nursing education led her to establish the first scientifically based nursing school --- The Nightingale School of Nursing --- at St.Thomas' Hospital in London, which opened in 1860. Florence was also instrumental in setting up training for midwives and nurses in the Workhouse infirmaries.

                   A Truly Inspiring Woman !
              A GOOD NURSING COURSE
(if you are interested in studying nursing, the above link "A GOOD NURSING COURSE" is a  good place to start)

HELEN KELLER 1880-1968

Helen Adams Keller was born on 27th June 1880. At the age of 19 months old, Helen was afflicted with an illness (possibly scarlet fever) which left her deaf and blind. At 6 years old, Helen was examined by Alexander Graham Bell who sent her a 20 year old teacher, Anne Sullivan (Macy), from the Perkins Institution for the Blind (in Boston). Within months, Helen had learned to feel objects and to associate them with words spelled out by finger signals and her palm, to read sentences by feeling raised words on cardboard, and to make her own sentences by arranging words in a frame.

During 1888-1890, Helen spent winters at the Perkins Institution learning braille. She learned to speak under Sarah Fuller of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (also in Boston). Helen also learned to lip-read by placing her fingers on the lips and throat of the speaker while the words were simultaneously spelled out to her. After going to school, Helen won admission to Radcliffe College in 1900 and graduated with distinction, she did not let her deafness or blindness stop her!

Helen developed skills never approached by any similarly disabled person.

In 1913, Helen began lecturing (with the aid of an interpreter), primarily on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind, for which she later established a $2 million endowment fund, and her lecture tours took her several times around the world. Helen's efforts to improve the treatment of  the deaf and blind were influential in removing the disabled from assylums.

Helen Keller was a truly amazing and remarkable woman.

DO NOT STAND AT MY GRAVE AND WEEP is a beautiful set of poems to uplift the soul when you have lost a loved one. I can just imagine Helen saying this, as she was such a strong character.

BEATRIX POTTER

Helen Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was born into the upper class, which enabled her the freedom to indulge in her love for writing and drawing. The family would go on long holidays to the countryside in Scotland, where Beatrix could follow her imagination, often bringing home little animals like mice, rabbits and birds.

Her picture book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was published in 1902, with 8,000 copies selling out very quickly. By 1905, six of her books had been published and with the profits, Beatrix bought her first farm, Hill Top Farm, in the Lake District. 

Her future husband, Norman Warne, died and Beatrix "threw"herself into running her farm and worked on more of her books. In all, Beatrix Potter wrote 30 books, the best known being her 23 children's tales.

1920's

LADIES OF NOTE

Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) worked to build adequate hospitals and asylums for the mentally ill.

Josephine Butler (1828-1906) campaigned for the rights of sex workers and the age of consent laws.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) in 1903 formed the "WSPU" --- "the Women's Social and Political Union."

Marie Stopes (1880-1958) began researching her controversial book "Married Love" on sexual pleasure and birth control.

A WOMAN'S ROLE

A woman's role hadn't changed much from the medieval era. The working class woman still had to work every hour to try to feed her ever growing family. The upper class woman still had servants. However, for the middle class woman life was changing. Although always wanting to "marry well", the working 'world' was now opening up for women. Also, many of the upper class started to work, seriously, in charities, with some now going into politics. 

Many women became teachers, typists, office workers and telephonists. With the invention of the bicycle and now having their 'own' money, young ladies found a new freedom their mothers never knew. Fashion changed, becoming more practical, and with the invention of the sewing machine, many could copy the fashions found in the ladies magazines.

FOOD EATEN BY THE LOWER CLASSES

The food eaten by the lower and working classes make for heart-rending reading. A typical Street-Irish breakfast was a dish of potatoes, coffee and a slice of bread, or a herring (a 'cheaper' fish) and potatoes, and two slices of bread and butter and a cup of tea for breakfast. Coffee stalls dotting the East End supplied a warm breakfast and "Rice-milk" girls, who tramped up and down the streets, with urns of boiled rice, sold with white liquid with sugar, browned with allspice.

THE "FORMAL" BREAKFAST

The "Formal" Breakfast differed slightly from early luncheon, except that the menu was a breakfast menu: toast, hot muffins, omelettes and other "eggs," delicate starch foods, cafe au lait, etc. A "Formal" breakfast was held at any time between 10am and 12.30pm. A fruit course 'opened' the menu: melons cut in slices, pink, green and yellow; baskets of apples and peaches, with grapes hanging over the rim and plates of pears. This was followed by a mild d'oeuvre or a dish of mush and cream, and then the breakfast plates were laid. The coffee urn was filled, and a hot breakfast was served: beefsteak or lamb/veal chops, with a salad or sliced tomatoes or lettuce, with hard-boiled eggs or poached eggs on toast: or omelette with muffins, or "pop-overs" (a light roll made with egg batter) with butter. Fish could be served, sometimes lobster. For the next course, chicken with rice. Dessert of frozen punch, pastry and jellies followed and coffee. Hot muffins, biscuits and waffles were served. This was a breakfast served when the Family had a "House Party."

HOW HUNGRY ARE YOU ?

For those who afford it, Edwardian food was both rich and tasty, some would often say that the food was rich to the extent of indigestion. There was a huge difference between what the rich and the poor ate. The rich spent a lot of money on food and its preparation. The poor had barely enough for one decent meal a day.

For the upper classes, food was used as a symbol of a Family's social status. They were served by servants and had breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner (dinner was usually 9/10 courses). The servants (who served this rich food) ate much simpler meals. The Family would eat such food as lobster, oysters, game, patisseries, in fact, the list seemed endless. For the working class, there was usually only one meal. Meat and fish was eaten only once a week and this was of the 'cheaper' kind. Fish and chips and pie shops had been opened for these poorer classes, whose diet was tea, bread and jam or dripping, potatoes and bacon.

As seen in the pictures, the difference between the rich and poor (and what they ate) really showed in this Era !