DIOR - Lady Dior Evening Chain Clutch Bag - Navy with Crystals-New Condition
View Similar Items
DIOR - Lady Dior Evening Chain Clutch Bag - Navy with Crystals-New Condition
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Height: 4.93 in (12.5 cm)Width: 10.63 in (27 cm)Depth: 2.37 in (6 cm)Marked Size: medium (UK)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU188429756282
Christian Dior
When Christian Dior launched his couture house, in 1946, he wanted nothing less than to make “an elegant woman more beautiful and a beautiful woman more elegant.” He succeeded, and in doing so the visionary designer altered the landscape of 20th century fashion.
Dior was born in Granville, on the Normandy coast, in 1905. His prosperous haute bourgeois parents wanted him to become a diplomat despite his interest in art and architecture. However, they agreed to bankroll an art gallery, which Dior opened in 1928 in Paris with a friend.
This was the start of Dior’s rise in the city’s creative milieu, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. After seven years as an art dealer, Dior retrained as a fashion illustrator, eventually landing a job as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet, and in 1941, following a year of military service, he joined the house of Lucien Lelong. Just five years later, with the backing of industrialist Marcel Boussac, the ascendant Dior established his own fashion house, at 30 avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Just two years after the end of World War II, the fashion crowd and the moribund haute couture industry were yearning, comme tout Paris, for security and prosperity, desperate to discard the drab, sexless, utilitarian garb imposed by wartime deprivation. They needed to dream anew.
And Dior delivered: He designed a collection for a bright, optimistic future. “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, the prescient American editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, famously proclaiming, “Your dresses have such a new look.” The press ran with the description, christening Dior’s debut Spring/Summer haute couture collection the New Look. “God help those who bought before they saw Dior,” said Snow. “This changes everything.”
Dior’s collection definitively declared that opulence, luxury and femininity were in. His skirts could have 40-meter-circumference hems, and outfits could weigh up to 60 pounds. They were cut and shaped like architecture, on strong foundations that molded women and “freed them from nature,” Dior said. Rather than rationing, his ladies wanted reams of fabric and 19-inch waists enforced by wire corsets, and the fashion world concurred. The debut got a standing ovation.
In the subsequent decade, Paris ruled as the undisputed fashion capital of the world, and Christian Dior reigned as its king. With the luxuriously full skirts of his New Look, suits and his drop-dead gorgeous evening dresses and ball gowns worthy of any princess, Dior gave women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of war.
On 1stDibs, find an exquisite range of vintage Christian Dior clothing, jewelry, handbags and other items.
- Faux Tortoise Shoulder Bag/Clutch, c.1980sLocated in Alford, MAConvertible clutch in faux tortoise shell features a textured goldtone clasp and gold chain. The chain folds away to convert to a clutch. Fabric interior with side compartment. Made ...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Structured Shoulder Bags
- Hermes Small Bag or Clutch In Red LeatherBy HermèsLocated in Paris, FRLovely bag, or clutch from maison Hermes. The interior is lined in leather with a zipped pocket and a flat one. It is worn on the shoulder or as a clutch (the handle is removable). ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Shoulder Bags
- Rare Carlos Falchi Multi-Skins Multi-Color Large Shoulder Bag & ClutchBy Carlos FalchiLocated in New York, NYThis wonderfully rare Carlos Falchi large shoulder bag with the option to wear use as a clutch is combined with multi-skins of snakeskin, lizard skin and pylon skins as well ...Category
1980s American Shoulder Bags
$885 Sale Price46% Off - Escada Forest Green Lizard Skin Shoulder Bag with Removable StrapsBy EscadaLocated in New York, NYEscada's wonderfully detailed forest green lizard skin flap-over shoulder bag is accented with removable shoulder straps for used as a clutch if desire. The shoulder straps...Category
1990s Italian Shoulder Bags
$1,385 Sale Price45% Off - Gucci Velveteen Monogram Bag, 1970sBy GucciLocated in Scottsdale, AZThe classic Gucci monogram bag! Black and brown monogram all over print on velveteen fabric. Black leather piping and interior. “GG” gold metallic clasp- push from the top and bottom...Category
1970s Italian Structured Shoulder Bags
- Myers Deep Lapis-Blue Soft Woven Lambskin Clutch with Optional Shoulder StrapsLocated in New York, NYMyers deep lapis-blue soft woven lambskin clutch with optional shoulder straps of lambskin as well is accented with 2 pom-poms on the exterior. Beside the large interior compartm...Category
1980s Italian Clutches
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Too Soon for the Return of ’90s Fashion? As If
There's a renewed appreciation for the era's aesthetic, perhaps most notably among millennials seeking authentic, easy style.
14 Iconic Luxury Handbags and the Stories behind Them
When the name of a bag is as well-known as its brand, you know it's a classic.