Anna Bevilacqua 1702504 Fashion Culture and Context AD4603 Make a case study of a 20th C /21st century fashion brand – explore the development of the marketing through at least two decades and analyse the cultural influence on the brand over that period Christian Dior: A fashion revolutionary or disastrous designer? Dior’s Marketing and Cultural Influences from the New Look of 1947 to Miss Dior in 1967. The House of Dior is one of the most prestigious, richest, and luxurious Haute Couture fashion brands in the world, only facing competition from the likes of brands such as: Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Burberry. Sitting at the very top of the fashion market levelling triangle, the brand has been valued at $47.7 billion as of May 2017, and today Dior has over four thousand Dior stores in thirty-five countries across all corners the globe. For decades, ever since the house’s first collection launch in 1947; The New Look, the world of Dior has evoked feelings of glamour, sophistication, fun and elegance in the minds of all its consumers, all eager for a look into the brand, be that through garment or shoe purchases, that only the elite members of society and celebrities can afford, or through a makeup or perfume purchase, that the average, working to middle class consumer can afford. In terms of marketing for The House of Dior today, Dior still places the pricing of its products high, thus aiming at a higher class of consumer for the most part, and also celebrity muses, whom include Natalie Portman, the face of the Miss Dior perfume since 2010, and Johnny Depp. This higher price point helps to keep the polished brand image strong, even after seventy years. Using celebrity muses in the brand is a clever promotional method that was used by Dior even when the New Look was first introduced. Promotion for Dior today therefore caters for premium, fashion enthusiasts, through advertising through renowned fashion publications such as Vogue Magazine, Elle Magazine, Harper’s Bizarre and Men’s GQ, amongst others, and also through mass media including posters, online adverts, and television adverts, creating an omni channel campaign. This therefore gains Dior a wide clientele base to be able to purchase from the brand, and to also purchase their cosmetics, which are the products sales that gain the most money for the brand. However, as successful as Dior maybe today, in 2018, back in 1947, when Christian Dior first launched his New Look, the initial marketing for the brand was difficult, thus creating a challenging start for a brand that is well known and loved now days. After the clothing restraints of World War Two, where make do and mend and fabric rationing were the “new normal” in terms of fashion styles and consumption, in 1947, Fashion Designer Christian Dior, whom had previously worked for Balmain helping to dress Nazi Officers and their Wife’s during the war, introduced his first women’s clothing line under his brand “The house of Dior.” Marcel Boussac whom Dior had previously been introduced to, financed the opening of The House of Dior, and helped the Dior brand to join his fashion conglomerate “Groupe Boussac.” This first collection was called The Corolle Line and included ninety beautifully designed dresses, skirts, jackets, corsets and hats, all of which were extremely lustrous, with heavy, full length skirts, full busts and tight waists. The garments were made from satin and silk and embellished with lace, ribbon, buttons and embroidery. Through the design and marketing of this collection, Dior wanted to reject the utilitarian forms of female dressing, that gave women freedom of movement to work in the factories, to bring back female
elegance, sophistication, and a nostalgic way of dressing that had been lost when women needed more practical styles of clothing during both world wars; wars that had given women their new, higher place in society, and allowed a small element of social mobility for women whom were once seen as extremely subservient to men. However, Dior’s new collection did not target these working women fresh out of bomb factories, but women of a higher class, who wanted their rich fashion back. Marketing for this new collection began with the in-house launch of the collection, where over 25,000 journalists from magazines and newspapers flocked to see the show and would continue to do so over the years of the collection at the semi-annual Dior shows. From the launch of the collection The New York Times called the collection “youthful” and “graceful,” while British Vogue credited Dior with “bringing back interest and admiration in an inspirational season.” With these publications having such a wide readership, this gave light to the higher-class women of French society, whom had accessibility to these publications, that the collection was expensive Haute Couture and something new and special and here to stay. However, most importantly, Carmel Snow, American Editor for Harper’s Bazaar, budded the collection “The New Look” as it was so shocking and new for the time. However, the look wasn’t new at all, as it brought back a restrictive form of dressing again. Although many press and women from the high ends of French society, loved this look, much of the public did not, as it presented a controversial message and a step back in time. This resulted in a surge of negative marketing and photography for brand and the “New Look”, as Anti Dior protests were carried out on the streets, thus publicising Dior in a negative light. Firstly, there were the American protests. While at a photoshoot in America during the opening of the store on 5th Avenue, sales ladies ripped dresses off models and pictures were published in The Paris Match. The Paris Match was a weekly news magazine based in Paris, and due to its high readership, this spread the negative images around quickly, thus resulting in the brand’s first piece of negative marketing. Again, when shooting in America in 1947, Dior had to flee from a Chicago train station after protests with mobs of older women attacked Christian Dior and his team. These women had been used to the “make do and mend” policy and thought it abhorrent that Dior should be designing such long dresses with masses of material. Angry as these women were, they held signs up whilst shouting “Down with the New Look,” “Down with Monsuire Dior,” and Dior go home!” The passion that fuelled the mob of women could only have been described as sharing the same drive as the Suffragette Movement, as this group were also protesting for the rights of women and their clothing. Finally, In Louisiana, Dior arrived to find a group of three thousand people, where both Men and Women had joined the “Little Below the Knee Club” in protest of the heavy, restrictive dresses. This club was set up by Mrs Louise Horn, after her long Dior skirt had been caught in the door of a bus, resulting in her being pulled down the street. This then caused her to enlist 1, 265 women to sign the petition, hoping it would give The House of Dior as much negative marketing as possible. This negative marketing process lead all the way back to California, where in an interview with Newsweek in September 1947, advocates stated “Long skirts are dangerous. With today’s speed, you can’t even catch a street car in a long skirt. And how can you drive an auto?” (Christian Dior The Biography: Marie-France Pochna, page 197.) To top this negative marketing off, New Liberty Magazine published an article called “What happened to the New Look?” However, it wasn’t all bad. Despite all the negative press and photography surrounding The New Look, Dior established a good marketing technique, that is still used and has been developed on today. To market to a high class of women at high prices. Little direct marketing or technological marketing was used at the time due to the standard of technology during the 1940’s/50’s, but Dior had a very good relationship with the press, especially Life Magazine. Mark Shaw, a contributing photographer for Dior and Life Magazine, and “often acted as a
bridge between Dior and the weekly magazine” as much of his beautiful photography for Dior, graced the pages of “Life” making the brand a hit with ladies everywhere. As well as the popular coverage in Life Magazine, there was regular coverage in Vogue magazine to introduce the brand also, and WWD magazine reported when he opened his store, and stating “Dior opens Paris couture establishment shortly.” In terms of celebrity dressing, Marlene Dietrich, a very popular Hollywood star in the decade in which Dior released his New Look, wore a Dior outfit in her Stage Fright film, and to the 1951 Oscars, which was a good use of social marketing for Dior, as he was dressing the high film stars in society, in a time where Hollywood glamour and Alfred Hitcock films were very popular in culture. Evita Peron also wore Dior garments as a method social marketing, as she was the first women to appear public next to her husband on his presidency campaign tour in 1945, in a time where women had very little political rights. She was one of the first women to speak out about labour rights and trade unions, and she embraced Dior’s New Look in the early 1950’s as a method of her communication to her people. Evita wanted to demonstrate by wearing the gowns that there was such a thing as upward social mobility for women, especially after the war, so wore Dior as she came from a working-class childhood and wanted to show that people can improve their life. This is similar to when Carla Bruni, the first Lady of France wore a Dior dress to Bastille Day celebrations. This type of marketing is one of Dior’s large external strengths, as it helps with positive communication with it’s elite clientele, as if an important member of society is wearing a Dior dress, consumer will have a positive brand opinion and the brand will gain good brand recognition and marketing. After Christian Dior’s death in 1959, in 1961, after Creative Director Yves St Laurent left Dior after three years of working for the brand, Marc Bohan was taken on as creative director for Dior. Shortly after, he launched his Slim Look. This collection was a much simpler, and conservative then the New Look, even though it still used the shapes and patterns of The New Look for inspiration. This collection, however, included more shift dress shapes and shorter dresses, as youth rebellion and less restrictive styles for women’s clothing emerged in the sixties. To help market this, Bohan said “that he made clothes for real women, not for the designers, models or fashion magazines.” Clients of his included Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and her daughter Princess Caroline, and Elizabeth Taylor, whom purchased 12 dresses from the collection. In 1967, Bohan launched the first Dior “ready to wear” store, which was marketed through the advertisement of lower priced items, perfumes and accessories, which made the most money for the company at the bottom of the marketing triangle, and he also launched his first Baby Dior collection. The ready to wear line was targeted at the younger generation of Dior consumers whom couldn’t afford the higher priced Dior products. Bohan’s assistant Philippe Guibourge helped to create Miss Dior, and in the collection, products were priced below £150. The collection was marketed as a fun collection, which had the spirit of youth at heart, hence why the first font used on the promotional posters was large and bold, and less glamorous and sophisticated, as the original promotion used. Today, Maria Grazia Chirui, the new Creative Director for the brand, still continues to steer The House of Dior in the right direction, taking the brand from strength to strength, in the fast paced, competitive face of Haute Couture Fashion.
References “It's Baby Dior's 50th anniversary. How did designer clothes for tiny people became such big business?” - Kate Finnigan for The Telegraph, September 2017 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/womens-style/baby-diors-50th-anniversary-did-designerclothes-tiny-people/ “Light at the end of the tunnel” – Linda Grant for The Guardian, September 2007 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/sep/22/fashion.feature “Fashion History: The Importance of Christian Dior ” – Dolores Monet, January 2018 https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Fashion-HIstory-The-Importance-of-Christian-Dior “The story of Dior: The New Look Revolution” – La Maison Dior https://www.dior.com/couture/en_gb/the-house-of-dior/the-story-of-dior/the-new-look-revolution “Christian Dior’s Most Famous Silhouettes in Vogue” – Laird Borrelli-Persson for Vogue, September 2016 https://www.vogue.com/article/christian-dior-archival-looks “The New Look: How Christian Dior Revolutionised Fashion 70 years ago” – Jan Tomes, February 2017 - http://www.dw.com/en/the-new-look-how-christian-dior-revolutionized-fashion-70-yearsago/a-37491236 “Opulence, femininity and feminism: celebrating 70 years of Christian Dior” – Harriet Hall for Stylist, April 2017 - https://www.stylist.co.uk/fashion/christian-dior-70-years-saint-laurent-galliano-rafsimons-maria-grazia-chiuri-new-look-fashion-style-history/121806 “The Only Queen Dressed by Dior” – Cinthia Di Ciancia, March 2018 - https://welum.com/article/queendressed-dior/ “ 7 ways Dior has changed the way you dress” – Jessica Vince for Harper’s Bizarre, July 2017 https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/a42430/dior-history-designers/ “Dior’s Scandalous New Look” – Alexandra Palmer, 2010 https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/magazine/spring10_feature.pdf “The New Look in Vogue” - https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/0gKyFFe8u3EALQ “Christian Dior” - Eric Pujalet-Plaà - https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-clothingindustry/fashion-designers/christian-dior “The Ultimate Timeline of The House Of Dior” – 2016 - https://www.designervintage.com/en/masterclass/gallery/the-ultimate-timeline-of-the-house-of-dior “Fashion flashback: Marc Bohan” - http://fashionreverie.com/?p=5617
“Marketing Mix Of Dior” – Hitesh Bhasin, December 2017 https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-dior/ “Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture and Consumers” by Regina Lee Blaszczyk https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vRKu_r1VnAUC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=miss+dior+ready+to+wear+1 967&source=bl&ots=kjyFaChMCG&sig=UoMRjLh6lpeShJW-otAIjGvODM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHxIqonPHZAhXFL8AKHQlVBT44ChDoAQhTMAg#v=onepage&q=miss%20di or%20ready%20to%20wear%201967&f=false Christian Dior The Biography, by Marie-France Pochna with an introduction by John Galliano – published in 2008 by Overlook Duckworth, Peter Mayer Publications Inc. Dior Glamour by Mark Shaw – Published 2013 by Rizzoli International Publications Dior Logo Image - http://www.coroflot.com/karinamber/DIOR-Logo