#candelabras

When the House of Christian Dior opened on February 12, 1947, he modeled on the decor of his fashion house at 30, avenue Montaigne on the architecture of the Palace of Versailles, employing white and “Trianon gray” paneling, Louis XVI-style medallion armchairs, Louis XV-style sofas, frames ornamented with layers of bows “à la Fontange,” chandeliers, and candelabras. This setting, created by @Dior together with his friend, the interior architect and designer Victor Grandpierre, was inspired by the memory of the living room in Dior’s childhood home, Villa Les Rhumbs, in the seaside town of Granville, and of the neoclassical style of the family’s elegant apartment in Paris. On the ground floor of the fashion house, the couturier’s colifichets (accessories) boutique, covered in toile de jouy wall covering, also used on the walls in this gallery, was designed with the help of another friend, the artist Christian Bérard, in the style of the magasins de frivolités (small stores selling mostly fabrics and luxury fashions for women) in the eighteenth century. 

Christian Dior: Designer Of Dreams was designed by Nathalie de Criniere, and “The Magnificent Eighteenth Century” gallery references Dior and Grandpierre’s original designs, while playing off the architectural details of our own Beaux Arts Court.