PARIS — Robert Polidori is used to documenting destruction. From the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to the decayed grandeur of the abandoned Hotel Petra in Beirut, the photographer has specialized in exploring places that bear the traces of history and current events.
For his latest project, Polidori tracked the renovation of Dior’s historic flagship on Avenue Montaigne, as the French luxury house’s salons, haute couture workshops and boutique were gutted and rebuilt into a sprawling complex that includes a restaurant, a café, a private suite and a museum, alongside the original office of founder Christian Dior.
Related Articles
The resulting book, “Dior metamorphosis,” provides a rare insight into the process of building a temple of luxury retail and is a poignant reminder of the genesis of the location, which Dior inaugurated in December 1946, just weeks before presenting his first collection and launching the revolutionary New Look.
You May Also Like
“It’s not the normal fashion book,” Polidori said in a Zoom interview from his home in Ojai, California. “I wanted to introduce a sense of pathos to the world of couture because, if I may quote Bob Dylan, most of the fashion world is about staying forever young and I wanted to show the scars of the past and the wrinkles of age.”
Far from the glossy glamour of fashion photography, his work showcases electrical cables, bare cement walls and piles of rubble, leaving the eye to search for clues of the building’s storied past.
“The piles of rubble to me are indices of prior states. I mean, everything in those shots are from the previous body or new body parts that were brought in. What’s the interest? The interest is anatomical and process-oriented. What was what and what will become what? What will compose the new body?” he explained.
Polidori has only collaborated with one other luxury brand, Bottega Veneta, for a 2011 campaign. These days, his work takes him to locations ranging from abandoned churches in Naples to 16th-century Mexican monasteries, and he’s hoping to resume a personal project documenting auto-constructed cities such as Brazilian favelas.
He visited the Dior renovation site around a dozen times over a period of more than two years. “Frankly, this was a very intense, condensed and accelerated process,” he remarked. “The transformation was so profound and complete that there was a moment there when I didn’t even recognize where I was anymore.”
In order not to lose sight of the function of the location, he and Olivier Bialobos, chief communication and image officer of One Dior, came up with the idea of photographing vintage Dior creations on the building site.
For example, Dior’s iconic monochrome Bar ensemble from 1947 is framed by a raw concrete corridor, while Gianfranco Ferré’s colorful Hellébore ballgown from 1995 tumbles down a plastic-covered staircase.
“As you know, I’m not a fashion person. I don’t even know if I like fashion, but I like Dior because it’s the princess look. It feels classic,” said the Canadian-born photographer, frequently slipping from English into French to emphasize a point. “It doesn’t try to be of the moment, but it tries to be of all the moments, so for me, it’s a natural fit, it’s a natural affinity.”
He regarded the outfits with the same curiosity he applies to interiors. “I’m sort of an amateur anthropologist or sociologist. Both rooms and clothes relate to the Freudian sense of superego. People put on walls who they think they are, who they want to be,” he mused. “So I look at clothes that way.”
That means keeping his personal taste out of the equation.
“I usually don’t put things in front of the lens to say this is the way I think the world is. I try to learn what the world is through the lens. I’m more of a medium,” Polidori explained. “I try to keep my opinions out of it, even though many people tell me I’m a very opinionated person.”
Granted exclusive access, he was able to document the original state, the demolition phase and the reconstruction of Dior’s historic home, which has drawn thousands of visitors a day since its opening in March 2022. “What I’m interested in is transformation,” he said. “I liked the way it was, I liked the process and I like the end. I’m not disappointed.”
The 304-page coffee-table book, which will be published by Rizzoli on Feb. 28 in the U.S. and March 1 in Europe, features neon printing, hand-tipped images on crystal paper, and will retail for $125.
Polidori is used to working with large-format cameras, but realized it would be too costly and impractical on a construction site. “I’ll be 72 next week. I’ve learned to be a little bit more practical and pragmatic. I knew that I wanted to take as much of the process as possible,” he said.
He hopes to continue working with Dior in the future, since he feels his photography gets to the bottom of what fuels the luxury industry.
“It’s about redefining oneself and this is what fashion products have to do, and it would be great if in the fashion world, there was more of a discourse about the deep psychological implications of why they do that, of what they’re doing. So I was hoping in some way that this book would be one of the first steps in that direction,” Polidori said.