The birth day of the fashion empire Christian Dior SA is December 16, 1946. On this day the House of Dior, supported by Marcell Bousac, a wealthy businessman, was founded at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris, France. Despite the company’s history started on this day, still 1947 is considered by the company’s authorities the real birthyear of Christian Dior SA.
There are two main reasons for this opinion, and the first one is to be deal with The New Look. This was the name of the first Dior’s collection – though the original names for the two spring-summer collections he created in 1947 were "Corolla" and "Eight", they are generally named the New Look after the words of one of the Paris journalists, that was so much amazed by the fresh, authentic and unusual designs by Dior. Beside this, 1947 is the year for Dior to start his line of perfume, and the starting point of it was called Miss Dior parfum. The scent was dedicated to Catherine Dior, Christian Dior’s sister.
The following decade was fully dedicated to what we can now call a quite aggressive export policy. In 1949 Dior products made up 5% of total French exports. Dior boutiques and shops were opened in New York and London, in Chile and Mexico, Italy, Canada and Cuba. Dior works with famous actors and film directors, for example, designs clothes for Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright.
The year 1957 is a dark year for the company. On March, 4 the founder of Christian Dior SA dies of a heart attack. This is the beginning of the long range of artistic directors, that will occupy his post in the company. The company used to hire Yves Saint Laurent and Marc Bohan, that are now famous designers.
Today the company owns 160 boutiques worldwide and produces clothes, shoes, jewelry and perfumes. Christian Dior SA is also the owner of a luxurious and rich company Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, of which it holds 42%.
