Inspiration Dior

Designs that literally changed the world and the artworks that inspired them are on display at Moscow`s State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Discover how legendary designer Dior launched a revolution in fashion and created the New Look.

"I have designed flower women," the famous Frenchman, Christian Dior said when he launched Corolle. It was his first collection that was presented in early 1947, when the world was still recovering from the losses of World War II.

Russia`s main and most respectable museum is paying its tribute to a genius, who once turned the life of his own country upside down and soon conquered the whole world. Dior`s flower-women blossomed in the post-war era. It was his time and his triumph.

The exhibition explores Dior`s sublime genius in and out, offering the chance to study his sources of inspiration. And these are history, nature, photography, film and of course fine art.

The display emphasizes the outstanding Dior House`s links with art. Certain elements of the New Look (that is how Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper`s Bazaar once labeled Dior`s fashion) bear resemblance with the images created by Francisco Goya, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Vincent van Gogh, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Kazimir Malevich and other geniuses.

Some of the exhibits were borrowed in Dior`s collection, others come from the Louvre, Versailles, Musee d`Orsay, the Turin Art Gallery, Russian Pushkin Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery and several private European collections. Classics of art are accompanied by works of modern artists, such as American Tom Wesselmann, Iranian Shirin Neshat, Pierre and Gilles, and photographs by Man Ray and Helmut Newton. And this is the scene for Dior`s gowns, coats, purses, shoes and jewelry.

The organizers have put all their effort in the display`s design and did not spare money to make the scene look rich and impressive. Show-windows, podiums and mirrors have been installed in Pushkin Museum`s halls along with art installations, video projections and lighting equipment.

The stunning display is already causing queues at the museum entrance, however, there is still plenty of time to see the works of the great masters at Pushkin Museum. The exhibition is on through July 24.

sections: Celebrities