The Ghost of Christian Dior's Past !

My next project was entitled 'Spirit of the Fashion House'. For this project I was given an A-Z list of 22 designers/fashion houses that I had to research. I was then asked to pick one which I would then research more in depth and then carry out a photo shoot to create a double page spread for my chosen designer. The double page spread had to be then edited to create an advertising campaign for a perfume for my chosen designer/fashion house. The advertising campaign had to capture the essence and spirit of the fashion house.

I decided to research Christian Dior, more inparticular Christian Dior the 1950's. The majority of my research, both text and image, came from a book called Christian Dior by Diane de Marly. I loved it so much I bought it.

From reading the book, especially the chapters on his work during the 1950's, I discovered how Dior came about creating the 'H' line and 'A' line, what colours, shape, fabric and silhouette he preferred to use, and how the war effected his fashion designs and decisions at this time. I learnt that Dior's designs whether a coat, dress or two piece suit always accentuated the waist. Volume was a key word in Dior's designs for skirts and dresses which at the time was controversial as during the war money and fabrics were limited. Whilst completing this project I had to assure that I only took influences from the 1950's and did not imitate previous trends or advertising campaigns.

My favourite image from this book was an illustration by Rene Gruau of a Christian Dior design. The hat  is amazingly extravagant and luxurious and the dress is elegantly sexy. The models waist is accentuated with a small skinny belt which I think I will use as inspiration in my photo graphs. Hopefully I can attend the Rene Gruau exhibition currently showing at Somerset House, as I think his fashion illustrations are incredible. 

Using these images and further research I had completed I carried out my photo shoot in Harris Museum in Preston town centre. I chose this location because of it's old furniture and features such as the staircase and marble flooring. I must thank Steven Walker who is Front of House Manager for allowing me to shoot within the Museum. Thank you to Nick Roberts for lending me his camera on such short notice. Finally, thank you to Becky Leadbetter who modelled tremendously for me in such extreme weather conditions. 

I sourced a black dress which I customised by adding a small split near the bust and added a petti-coat underneath to create volume. I added a small black patent skinny belt to the waist to accentuate it similar to Dior's designs of the 1950's. I put lace gloves on my model as through researching and looking at images I noticed models wearing them. However to make my photograph more apparent I put lace gloves on my models as lace is on trend and was seen in the Spring 2011 collection runway shows of designers such as Erdem. As well as noticing gloves as a chosen accessory, I noticed that in the 1950's hats were worn a lot by the models. Once again to keep my photographs recent and on trend I sourced a embellished head band which had a vintage and glamourous look to it. 

During post editing I changed my photo graphs from colour to black and white as I thought the design and atmosphere I was trying to achieve worked more successful in black and white.