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“Deep in every heart slumbers a dream and the coutierier knows it: every woman is a princess.”– Christian Dior

Florence Müller and her team captured the essence of Christian Dior in curating the new “Dior: From Paris to the World” exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, unveiled Saturday evening. 

Many women were princesses in the crowd, including major donor Joy Dinsdale in a glittering gold Dior gown picked out for her by her husband Chris, and her daughters Chloe and Jillian, also in Dior. Joy gave us all license when addressing the crowd: “I am not shopping, I am collecting.”

Also seen in the crowd were several other eras of Dior designs, including a rare 1959 haute couture Dior dress worn by Alessandra Schulein.

After welcome remarks from Director Dr. Christoph Heinrich, Joy Dinsdale and Florence Müller, the exhibit officially was presented to the Denver crowd, and the world.

The designs are breathtaking. The essence is beyond memorable.

Dior: From Paris to the World surveys 70 years of the House of Dior’s enduring legacy and its global influence. A selection of more than 200 couture dresses, as well as accessories, costume jewelry, photographs, drawings, runway videos, and other archival material, trace the history of the iconic haute couture fashion house, its founder, Christian Dior, and the subsequent artistic directors who carried Dior’s vision into the 21st century.

Christian Dior, the art gallerist who became a celebrated couturier, generated a revolution in Paris and around the globe after World War II. Dior created haute couture expressing modern femininity, completely shedding the masculine silhouette that had been established during the war. He conceived sophisticated designs featuring soft shoulders, accentuated busts and nipped waists that marked the beginning of an epic movement in fashion history that would eventually lead to Dior successfully becoming the first worldwide couture house.

The chronological presentation, showcasing pivotal themes in the House of Dior’s history, focuses on how Christian Dior cemented his fashion house’s reputation within a decade of his humble beginnings in 1947 and highlights how his successors, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri, incorporated their own design aesthetic.

This exhibition is organized by the DAM and curated by Florence Müller, the DAM’s Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art and Fashion. This is the culmination of three years of planning to make Florence’s dream a reality. It features exhibition design by internationally renowned architect Shohei Shigematsu, principal of OMA New York.

Visit www.denverartmuseum.org to find out more information and schedule a tour of this once-in-a-lifetime display.

The 2013 Rising Star event, the Colorado competition for cutting-edge design, was held at the McNichols Civic Center Building on Friday, September 6, 2013.  This competition is Denver’s best fashion event of the year, with an awards gala and runway show presented by The Fashion Group International (FGI).  Guests enjoyed cocktails and gourmet street faire food stations while browsing the silent auction items before the awards ceremony.    Denise Plante, host of Colorado and Company on KUSA/NBC 9 News, was the evening’s emcee. She introduced the award winner’s in the categories of accessories, women’s ready to wear, active/outdoorwear, bridal/evening, children’s wear, floral/frangrance, interior design, jewelry, men’s ready to wear and retail experience.  The runway show provided the opportunity for each of the Rising Star Award winners to showcase their products on the runway.

The beneficiaries of the evening were the participants of Dress for Success Denver, which helps to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire and career development support and networking, and FGI’s scholarship and curriculum programs in fashion and related industries. FGI’s goal is to be the pre-eminent authority on the business of fashion and design, and help its members become more effective in their careers. The organization provides insights on major trends in person, online and in print, plus access to business professionals as a gateway to the influence fashion plays in the marketplace. The Fashion Group International was founded in 1930, spearheaded by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edna Woolman Chase, and the Denver chapter was created in 1958.