Dior couture silhouettes are synonymous with cosmopolitan life and luxury, and a new exhibition staged at SCAD FASH Lacoste visualizes the blooming of the storied house through the decades.
Against the backdrop of the American university’s Provençal campus, “Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés” immerses visitors in the legendary brand’s journey from the gardens of Granville, where its founder grew up with a deep reverence for his botanical surroundings, to the bustling Parisian ateliers his successors (including Yves Saint Laurent, Raf Simons, and Maria Grazia Chiuri) have filled with incisive new designs since his passing in 1957.
Orchestrated in exclusive collaboration with Christian Dior Couture, “Jardins Rêvés” unfurls with nearly 30 archival silhouettes and over 60 accessories, and a botanical theme as its throughline. Each artifact reveals how Dior and his successors distilled the power of the floral to create sartorial masterpieces in the French tradition of savoir-faire.
The garments are accompanied by perfume bottles, press sketches, René Gruau illustrations, and personal ephemera that underscore the horticultural as a constant in the maison’s 78-year history. To crown the exhibition, a bespoke paper installation by Spanish studio Wanda Barcelona, a frequent Dior co-conspirator over the past decade, wraps the gallery in an homage to the designer’s sister, Catherine.
Although “Jardins Rêvés” is the first exhibition in the south of France dedicated to Dior’s legacy, it is still a homecoming of sorts. Not to a geographical location, but to an arcadian spirit that continues to nourish the maison—and the hundreds of fashion students who pass through SCAD’s campus—to this day. Visitors have until Sept. 28 to take it in for themselves.
in your life?
