“Beware of originality; in women's fashion, originality can lead to the masquerade.”
-Coco Chanel

(Note: If you don't feel like reading this through, just check out some of the salient points, which I have BOLDED. :-D)

To start with a quote from Mademoiselle Chanel may seem unusual, but I will explain: Before the Second World War, the chief designer in Paris was Coco Chanel; after the War ended, however, it was Monsieur Christian Dior who emerged as the great new designer in Paris. Monsieur Dior, a former art dealer and art collector, had his defining moment in the debut presentation of his 1947 fashion line, in which he introduced the so-called “New Look,” which consisted of narrow shoulders, an accentuated bust, a narrowed waist, a broad A-line skirt, and high heels, at first presented with a wide "coolie" hat to balance out the proportions, but usually without it afterward (and you will being seeing many examples and variations in the following gallery). Monsieur Dior employed more than 80 yards of fabric at times, and the New Look was the cause of much public outrage at the time, as there had been a shortage of textiles in France, and life was still just getting back to normal again. Yet despite all that, he nevertheless went ahead and deliberately shocked everyone with his unabashedly extravagant use of fabric and a stunningly exaggerated silhouette, which was indeed a drastic departure from the straight-down silhouette that had been so long established and popularized by Chanel in the ’30s. As quoted above, Chanel had warned other women to “Beware of originality; in women's fashion, originality can lead to the masquerade,” and said that, undoubtedly, with the message that “ the masquerade” was, for a stylish woman, the negative result of trying "too hard," of too much effort, too much art, and was terrible, impossible, unthinkable—and yet, for Monsieur Dior, and for the most talented heir to his legacy, the British designer John Galliano, the goal is not to make clothes that are unthinkable, but rather to make clothes that are unimaginable—and unimaginably amaaaaazing.... And, after all, why should life not be about the pleasures of self-expression and beautification? Ah, behold! The Bal des Artistes! The greatest masquerade ever produced...

Now, writers and sociologists have said that all the world's a stage, and countless fashion-lovers have said the world is one big catwalk, a vast runway of millions of models, but why should we not go a step further and say that all the world's a masquerade? We all wear masks in one way or another...or do we? Oscar Wilde said that, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." And does that apply to Woman as well? And who is really to say when a person is being their "true" self and when they are being "false"? For example, is a young woman more herself when she dresses up, or less herself? The ultimate question is whether we are allowed to realize our dreams of what we most want to be, or not. But no matter what you you personally believe, I don't think there a woman in the world who wouldn't appreciate the insight of Monsieur Dior, encapsulated by his remark that, “A ball dress is your dream dress, and it must make you magical...” It is no wonder that the shape he introduced to the world in the Spring of 1947, with the accentuated bust, narrow waist, and calf-length A-line skirt, continues to be the most popular and even obvious silhouette for young women for their proms, and can still be seen at any type of high-class formal party where a woman may want to make a big and lasting impression.

In every season of his career as a designer, Monsieur Dior captivated France, Europe, and America with his consistently daring vision of how a woman could present herself, and his various silhouettes are instantly recognizable, as they are influential and have continued to be so, in every subsequent generation of fashion designers. Upon Dior's untimely passing in 1957, the French national newspaper, Le Monde, called him a man “whose name has become synonymous with good taste, art, and the living symbol of refined culture—all that was Paris in the popular consciousness.” And his vision lives on, right to this very season, as the Dior label continues to hold its own against every other label, many of whom clearly owe a massive creative debt to the man himself.

For Fall 2007, John Galliano, a British designer of Gibraltarian descent, took the 300-year-old L’Orangerie (orange grove) of the royal Château de Versailles—that is, the one-time home to the Sun King, Louis XIV, and Marie-Antoinette—and turned it into a spectacular catwalk show and celebrity-studded party, where he celebrated his own 10-year anniversary as the Creative Director of the Maison Dior, but also commemorated the 60th anniversary of the house by bringing Monsieur Dior’s own curated art collection to life, as Monsieur Dior had been an art dealer and collector before becoming a fashion designer and setting to either deliberately or subconsciously synthesizing and individualizing the work of so many of the most outstanding photographers, illustrators, and painters the world has ever known.

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art,” said the witty Irish writer Oscar Wilde, and it would seem that what Monsieur Dior, the most groundbreaking fashion designer of the 20th century, would say is: “Be a work of art,” or rather “Be a work of art by wearing a work of art.” Monsieur Dior’s most famous statement was that his objective as a designer was to “save women from Nature,” and, well, what better way to save them from Nature than by turning them into works of Art?

Something else that Oscar Wilde said was that “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months,” and so, as the 18th-century French letter-writer, Julie de L’Espinasse, put it, “A woman would be in despair if Nature had formed her as fashion makes her appear.” Coco Chanel herself reiterated that, “Fashion is made to become unfashionable,” and it was another 18th-century French writer, Sebastien Nicholas de Chamfort, who made the observation that “Change of fashions is the tax which industry imposes on the vanity of the rich.” And that, I suppose, amusingly, is something the fashion business still imposes on its consumers right up to today. Monsieur Dior, working in the late 1940s and early-mid-1950s, was known for making drastically different changes from one season to the next, which Galliano continues in a shockingly cross-cultural way, in both his Haute Couture and Ready-to-Wear collections for the Maison, always integrating such disparate elements that the word “mind-boggling” appears in more than a few Google results pertaining to his work.

Monsieur Dior pioneered the practice of licensing out his name in order to stave off the work of imitators, thereby starting the globalization of luxury, which Galliano later expanded upon, in the form of dozens of upscale boutiques worldwide, and in his integration of countless different fashion lexicons in his interpretation of the many different Dior looks.
Three Quotes from Christian Dior are apropos of that:
> “Having taste means having your own taste.”
> “If you are sincere and natural, the real revolutions will take place without your trying.”
> “You don’t have to search for a revolution; just be natural.”

As the fashion writer Marie-France Pochna noted, “Dior made public his opinion that ‘the supremacy of French quality and of our creative talent’ could provide a new source of economic activity, by commercializing a tradition of taste and elegance that was distinctively French.”  Yet it was the 19th-Century American writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said that “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up,” and Galliano has taken the distinctively French look envisioned and actualized by Dior, and re-appropriated it in such a variety of ways that it's hard to believe that it has been the same Chief Designer behind all of these collections. So, how is this so differently from the work of his predecessors? Answer: because he has both modernized and globalized Dior's signature style—which is almost redundant to say, as modernization usually means globalization, but in this case it denotes both that these fashions are created through the involvement of different cultures, and made for members of different cultures.

In the year 1754, the great 18th-century British scholar Samuel Johnson wrote: “Of the fashions prevalent in every country, a few have arisen, perhaps, from particular temperatures of the climate; a few more from the constitution of the government; but the greater part have grown up by chance; been started by caprice, been contrived by affectation, or borrowed without any just motives of choice from other countries.” One review of the Dior Fall 2001 Couture collection said: “Uplifting and exuberant, the Dior show proved that fun and serious fashion are not incompatible. ‘All the ethnic research was great inspiration,’ said Galliano. ‘But ultimately, the collection is about the lyricism of fabrics and clothes.’” And it is just as true of this season's Couture collection, which brings so many great classical and modern art-portraits to life, and with 45 models who themselves are from over 30 different countries.

In his unique genius for successfully synthesizing so many different forms and definitions of beauty, Galliano has built innumerable bridges through his chosen form of art, attracting shoppers from all over the world to the quality and the craftsmanship of unique, impeccable, and stunning fashion design, that his work for the Maison has brought in top profits year after year, which proves that Galliano comprises the role of both artist and businessman, something that Monsieur Dior boldly trailblazed in his own time. As he says: “That's what I'm working for—the couture house of the future.” The only way to shape the future, at least for the better, is to know of the past, and this collection has shown a historical knowledge and understanding that is unlike anything we have ever seen before....

~ 8 Relevant Quotes (and then the Gallery!) ~
1.
"To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the house of Christian Dior we explored Mr. Dior's first collection, not of fashion, but of his favourite artists," Galliano stated in the notes supplied to his audience. "Using the spirit of the Neo-Romantic artists his gallery represented, we have created the ultimate Bal des Artistes." [So much for "the masquerade" meaning something negative...!] "This season each look evokes the essence of a great master in art history. The cut, silhouette and embellishment of each outfit is lead by the spirit of each artist's style, referencing their inspirations and techniques."
– The London Independent
2.
According to one French fashion site, it was “une démonstration étourdissante grâce à des moyens époustouflants,” that is, “a dizzying presentation thanks to astonishing means.” Yes!
– www.madame.lefigaro.fr
3.
Galliano has once more produced a formidable, breath-taking display of his mastery of cut, tailoring and style.
– www.quissumfashion.blogspot.com
4.
These were sophisticated, structured clothes, modelled predominantly by grown-up women, with the sexy curves to do each creation justice. (Ah! The Best!!!)
– www.vogue.co.uk
5.
American model Shalom Harlow, one of the many top models in the show, said of Galliano:
“He invites you into a world of fantasy, and he consistently pushes the realm of his own imagination; he's constantly exploring creation and fashion and fabrics and all that it means.”
– elle.com
6.
“If Dior is the Watteau of dressmaking, full of nuances, chic, delicate and timely—then Balenciaga is fashion’s Picasso. For like that painter, underneath all of his experiments with the modern, Balenciaga has a deep respect for tradition and the pure classical line.” – mid-20th-century photographer Cecil Beaton
But why include this? Compare with the following:
7.
"There's a close proximity in their talents. John has many creative talents that are close to those of Mr Dior himself and this is the reason why I chose him 10 years ago," Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH which includes the Dior brand, said.  "They share the femininity and romanticism but also the modernity and extravagance ... Christian Dior was not classical at all in the 1950s. He was revolutionary. Today he looks classical. It is like Picasso.”
– www.reuters.com
8.
Christian Dior's first collection in 1947 introduced a sharply feminine silhouette with a nipped-in waist, opening on to a long-hemmed voluminous dress made with 20 metres of fabric, a style some critics deemed obscene after years of war shortages. “I have designed flower women,” Dior was quoted as saying of his style, which Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, was reportedly responsible for renaming [the] "New Look."
– www.news.com.au