Bar
Christian Dior · Spring/Summer 1947
Christian Dior
- New Look
- Haute couture
Christian Dior’s New Look made a narrow waist and expansive skirt the focus of postwar fashion. Its promise of abundance in 1947 also raised a practical question: who could afford so much cloth while rationing continued?
Official house website
Five looks to know
Landmark design
Bar
Spring/Summer 1947
The shaped waist, padded hips and full skirt made Bar the defining image of Dior’s 1947 New Look and a decisive change in postwar silhouette.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Chérie
Spring/Summer 1947
The immense skirt compressed into a narrow waist reveals the construction behind the New Look’s volume.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Junon
Fall/Winter 1949–50 haute couture
Overlapping, embroidered petals turn the full skirt into a sculptural surface, exemplifying Dior’s sumptuous postwar eveningwear.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Venus
Fall/Winter 1949–50 haute couture
Shell-like scallops and pearly shimmer translate the myth of Venus emerging from the sea into a grand ball gown.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
New-York
Oblique line · fall/winter 1950–51
The Oblique line’s large collar and emphasized hips extend Dior’s sculpted silhouette into outerwear.
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtCollections & archive pieces
3 collections represented · 4 piecesSpring/Summer 1947
2 pieces
Chérie
Christian Dior · Spring/Summer 1947
Oblique line · fall/winter 1950–51
1 piece
New-York
Christian Dior · fall/winter 1950–51
Spring/Summer 1955
1 piece
Dinner dress
Christian Dior · Spring/Summer 1955
About Christian Dior
Dior presented his first couture collection on 12 February 1947. Carmel Snow, editor of American Harper’s Bazaar, supplied the name New Look. Sloping shoulders, a shaped bust and hips, and a closely fitted waist created a marked change of proportion; full skirts were its best-known expression, although the collection also included narrower lines.
The Bar suit makes the construction legible: its fitted jacket opens out over the hips above a generously pleated skirt, building an hourglass outline rather than simply following the body. In Britain, the quantity of fabric provoked criticism while rationing remained in force. That mixed reception matters alongside the collection’s eventual popularity and Dior’s role in the renewed prominence of Paris couture.