How well do you know Christian Dior?

Christian Dior: Founder of the Iconic Fashion House

• Christian Dior was a French fashion designer who founded one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE.
• He gained prominence in the fashion industry by designing for various fashion icons in attempts to preserve the fashion industry during World War II.
• Post-war, he founded and established the Dior fashion house, with his collection of the "New Look" which revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World War II.
• Each season featured a newly titled Dior "line", in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would then be trumpeted in the fashion press.
• In 1955, the 19-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant.
• Dior died of a sudden heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy, on 24 October 1957 in the late afternoon while playing a game of cards.
• He won numerous awards for Best Costume Design and was nominated for the 1955 Academy Award for Best Costume Design in black and white for the Terminal Station directed by Vittorio De Sica (1953).
• Dior was also nominated in 1967 for a BAFTA for Best British Costume (Colour) for the Arabesque directed by Stanley Donen (1966).
• Dior was also nominated in 1986 for his contributions to the 1985 film, Bras de fer, he was up for Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) during the 11th Cesar Awards.
• Dior's debut fragrance was named Miss Dior in tribute to his sister Catherine who served as a member of the French Resistance and was captured by the Gestapo.
• Upon his death in 1957, various contemporary icons paid tribute to his life and work.
• Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the wartime rationing of fabric.
• The house employed Pierre Cardin as head of its tailoring atelier for the first three years of its existence, and it was Cardin who designed the famous Bar suit for Dior.