 |
| Blue Velvet Embroidered Gown with Pearls Christian Dior, 1956 The Cecil Beaton Collection This and all related images from the Victoria & Albert Museum |
This short and strapless, midnight-blue velvet dress was designed in Paris in 1956 by Christian Dior (1905-57) and features delicate embroidery by Rébé, which includes velvet birds’ nests with clusters of pearl “eggs.:
The cut of the dress is simple and elegant, designed to showcase the gown’s opulent surface detail—divine embellishment which would have required meticulous patience for, as Dior explained, “a ball dress may be entirely covered with millions of paillettes, or pearls, each one of which has to be put on separately.”
The
dress cleverly has two attached petticoats, one of black net and one of navy
blue silk to add delicate volume without being too puffy. Originally, the dress was designed to be worn
with a plain velvet bolero. The jacket
did exist, but was not part of the bequest to the V&A when the gown was
given by Mrs. Stavros Niarchos III (1926-70) to Cecil Beaton who was orchestrating
a couture collection for the museum.
Mrs. Niarchos was the ideal couture client - beautiful, stylish and exceedingly rich. Beaton had once written that “Mme Stavros Niarchos was about the only person who could afford to order one of the incredibly beaded dresses that Dior has designed.”
According
to the V&A, “Beaton did indeed
manage to persuade her to donate her Dior dress, which thankfully she had
'never had the heart to throw away', although she added, 'but I'm afraid they
ain't too fresh-looking'.”
No comments:
Post a Comment