Christian Dior Conservation at the de Young Museum

Nearly a year-and-a-half after the Denver Art Museum held its blockbuster fashion exhibition, “Christian Dior: From Paris to the World,” some new conservation work on Dior’s dresses has come to light via the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The Denver show (check out my BTS story here)was based on “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams,” the major retrospective shown at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and which coincided with the House's seventieth anniversary. The de Young, which has a large holding of Dior pieces, loaned dresses for the Paris version of the show.

The Paris and Denver shows were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see many of Dior’s signature evening gowns and archival pieces, as well as looks by the House’s subsequent artistic directors, since many of these dresses will never be displayed again. Their fragile nature means they will spend most of their time hidden away in temperature-controlled storage, where light and air cannot continue to degrade their materials. I find this entire process fascinating not just because I’m in fashion, but also because I was generously treated to a BTS unpacking of a two Dior dresses just before the Denver exhibition opened. Watching the experts from the Dior archive, as well as the couture seamstresses brought over from Paris to repair pieces damaged during transport, was truly special. It’s a time-consuming process that requires skillful hands and a lot of patience.

But back to the de Young Museum. To emphasize just how delicate these mid-century haute couture gowns are, the de Young posted just last month a video of assistant conservationist Anne Getts discussing the cleaning and transporting of the “Venus” gown. The “Junon” dress - which is similar in construction to “Venus” - is currently undergoing conservation. It was shown in the Denver exhibition in miniature form (see photo, upper right-hand corner). Check out the story and video from the de Young Museum here. -xo