Christian Dior

Christian Dior (1905 to 1957) was a French fashion designer and the founder of one of the world's leading fashion houses, Christian Dior SE. Born in Granville, Normandy, he abandoned diplomatic studies, ran art galleries in Paris with partners, and after recovering from tuberculosis worked as a fashion sketch artist and then for the couture houses of Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong. In 1946 the textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac financed his own house, which opened on Avenue Montaigne, and its first collection in February 1947 became known as the New Look, which reestablished Paris as the center of fashion after the Second World War. Dior is counted among the Big Four of 1950s haute couture. He died in October 1957.