Oscars-inspiring original Diors on display
For haute couture fans, the reference was unmistakable. The shell-like silk-tulle scales on the skirt and shimmering sequin details on the bodice of the gown Anya Taylor-Joy wore to the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 10, were undoubtedly a reference to two of Christian Dior’s most important gowns: “Venus” and “Junon,” from the French designer’s fall-winter 1949 collection.
Those two original gowns are currently on view as part of the de Young Museum’s exhibition “Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style, ” which runs through Aug. 11. They are considered among the most artistically significant dresses Dior ever made, and are a part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s permanent costume collection.
The gown worn by “The Queen’s Gambit” star, who has been a Dior brand ambassador since 2021, was made by Dior Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuir.
“It’s a reinterpretation of both sister dresses,” Laura Camerlengo, curator of “Fashioning San Francisco,” told the Chronicle. “There are elements particularly of the decorative treatments and the embellishments that are much more similar to Venus, especially the long piette sequins that you see along the edges of each petal; that sort of grayish-blue tone is much more similar to Junon. But the bodice treatment, which is rather columnar in construction, reminds me more of some of Dior’s design for fallwinter 1952-53.”
Dior was famous for his bold use of luxurious fabrics, abundant volume and dramatic construction techniques that changed the shape of women’s fashion after the fabric limitations and strict lines of World War II style. His 1947 collection with its Belle Epoque silhouettes was dubbed “The New Look,” which inspired the title of the new Apple TV+ show starring Ben Mendelsohn as Dior and Juliette Binoche as rival Parisian designer Coco Chanel. The limited series explores how Dior and his contemporaries, including Pierre Balmain and Cristóbal Balenciaga, navigated World War II to launch modern fashion, with Dior reigning as emperor for a decade before dying in 1957 at age 52.
“Junon” and “Venus” are named for the Roman goddesses of marriage and fertility, and love and beauty respectively. The dark blue sequined edges on the flounces of the “Junon” skirt are meant to evoke peacock feathers, the goddess’ favorite bird, while the soft pink of the “Venus” skirt is reminiscent of the sea-foam and shells the goddess rose to the shore on.
Grazia Chiuri has been noted for references in her collections to Dior’s history, and has also created archive-like displays in several boutiques.
Camerlengo calls the new dress “a refreshing take on earlier designs” and noted the slimmer skirt and drape of the back were both updates that make the dress easier to wear.
“The new dress is more streamlined than the ‘Venus’ and ‘Juno,’ which are really classic Dior at his best with the very broad bust, the very fitted waist and the full skirt,” said Camerlengo. “This dress to me has a more linear appearance, which I think is also more indicative of how our bodies move today, more of an athletic body like (Taylor-Joy’s) body.”
Both “Junon” and “Venus” gowns were donated to FAMSF in November 1949 by the luxury department store I. Magnin & Co., whose Union Square location was famed as the “white marble lady” for its facade by San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger. The gowns were used for in-store presentation and were not intended to be sold.
While wearing an original gown of this historic significance would be an unthinkable risk in the preservation world, (Kim Kardashian infamously wore Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 Jean Louis sequined gown that she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in to the 2022 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Gala, causing a furor among fashion preservationists), Camerlengo thinks that when designers recreate or reinvent classic designs, “it’s a way for the brand identity to pay tribute to what’s come before.”