Since the brand’s debut, divas have always adored Dior.
Screen icons like Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren are known to have been devotees, while loyal royals include Princess Grace and her daughter Princess Caroline, the Duchess of Windsor and Princess Diana.
In recent years, leading ladies have made Dior a red-carpet staple — Reese Witherspoon accepted her statuette for “Walk the Line” last year clad in a 1955 “Fête à Trianon” couture gown created by Christian Dior, while in 2004 Charlize Theron accepted her best actress Golden Globe for “Monster” in a sunny yellow head-to-toe Dior gown by John Galliano.
Indeed, according to legend, Dietrich stipulated “no Dior, no Dietrich,” when negotiating her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 film “Stage Fright.”
Elizabeth Taylor proved just as difficult to please, recalled Marc Bohan, who acted as Dior’s artistic director from 1960 to 1989. The blue-eyed belle ordered a dozen dresses from his debut Dior couture collection, dubbed the “Slim Look,” for spring 1961.
“We became great friends,” said the designer, who at the time had created a caftan-filled wardrobe specifically for Taylor. “She rang once and said, ‘Marc, please make me a dress and not a caftan.’ So I told her she should not have two desserts. To which, she replied, ‘It’s not my problem, it’s yours.'”
According to Bohan, Taylor was never afraid to chart new fashion territory. “I made her a coat in white rabbit fur for her role as a prostitute in ‘Butterfield 8’ and she loved it,” Bohan said, chuckling as he recalled her saying Richard Burton would love the revealing attire. “I told her that if I ever saw her wearing the coat on the street, I would never dress her again.”
In recent years, the house has continued to ally itself with many of the most glamorous stars, including Theron, Sharon Stone and Monica Bellucci.
“Monica Bellucci is a divine lady,” said Galliano, who took the helm in 1996. “I’ve gone to restaurants with her and you can hear the cutlery drop.”
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The curvaceous Italian has sported goddess-worthy gowns on several occasions, including at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 and 2006 and the Dior-sponsored International Film Festival in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2005. She is now a spokeswoman for the brand’s Rouge Dior lipstick line.
Of course, dressing divas isn’t always a cinch.
Sophia Loren, whom Bohan dressed for her 1967 film “A Countess From Hong Kong,” reportedly refused to wear purple as it’s considered bad luck in her native Italy.
“If any of the costumes had purple, she would point to it and say, ‘Take it away,'” he recalled.
But her pickiness was certainly rewarded.
“Thank heavens for grown-up girls…especially when they’re Sophia Loren,” read a 1964 WWD headline. “In all wild Italian glory at the film festival in Cannes….Here she is in Dior’s embroidered white dress, with her rubies and her men-in-attendance…this is the way a movie queen should look.”
Other Dior confections worn by high-wattage celebrities have grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons. Take the white backwards suit worn by Celine Dion at the 1999 Oscars.
“That was so misguided, some thought it should have gone down on the Titanic,” reported WWD at the time.
Similarly, in 2000, a fashion-forward Courtney Love pushed the boundaries at the Golden Globe awards by donning a number from the Galliano-designed Hobo collection for Dior Couture.
“Even the former grunge queen has her limits,” wrote WWD. “She said the dress came trimmed in dead mice and tiny beer cans — which she cut off ‘in the name of good taste.'”
Nicole Kidman made what some considered a risky fashion statement when she wore a chartreuse couture sheath to the 1997 Oscars. More fashion-forward critics, however, heralded the gown as symbolic of Galliano’s talent and as the moment Kidman was promoted from Mrs. Tom Cruise to Hollywood royalty.
“Nicole wore a dress from my first couture collection at Maison Dior to the Oscars in 1997; since then I’ve gotten to know her more and more,” said Galliano.
Some starlets are not content to just sit pretty, however, and have chipped in on the creative process.
Dietrich, for example, adjusted her outfits both on and off the set. She famously added garter belts to the Acacias wool suit she wore in “Stage Fright” to enhance her slinky silhouette.
Her handiwork later inspired Galliano’s spring 2004 ready-to-wear collection and models were coiffed and made up with arching eyebrows, lengthy lashes and the perfect Hollywood pout to look like the aloof actress.
More recently, the South African-born Theron, who is the face of Dior’s J’Adore fragrance, also offered her two cents.
“She sent me a rose petal and told me that she wanted a dress to match not the color of the rose but the yellow at the base of the petal when it begins to fade and die,” said Galliano. “Now that’s fearless! That’s my kind of woman.”
Dior doesn’t cater only to Hollywood royalty, though — it also collaborates with the real thing, including princesses Diana and Grace and Queen Sylvia of Sweden. Bohan, for example, designed Iranian Empress Farah Diba’s dress for her 1967 wedding, as well as her coronation gown and the entire court’s attire — all in total secrecy.
Princess Grace, who wore a Dior gown for her engagement, perhaps reigns as Dior’s queen among the stately set.
“She had natural elegance,” said Bohan, recalling that for her daughter Caroline’s wedding, she initially resisted having a new dress made. He nevertheless convinced her to wear a gown he’d whipped up from soft yellow silk muslin and topped with an elegant organza hat. “When she walked into the room everyone turned around and forgot about the bride.”
He remembered during the ceremony overhearing someone whisper to Grace, “There will only be one star in that family and it’s you.”
Diana oozed elegance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1996 clad in a design from Galliano’s first Dior couture collection.
“She had this really magical aura about her,” said Galliano. “I think that dress was as important for her as it was for me because she was asserting her independence from Buckingham Palace as much as her own identity.”
Nurturing future style icons is something of a habit for the brand, which has cultivated connections with fashion newbies such as Drew Barrymore, rapper Kanye West, Emmy Rossum and Mischa Barton. They, in turn, have brought their own brand of freshness to the house.
“This is dope,” said West as he made his entrance to Paris’ decadently decorated Grand Palais for Dior’s spring 2007 show.
Metropolitan Opera-trained Rossum couldn’t resist a musical analogy to compare small fashion shows in New York to her first Dior sitting.
“It’s like comparing a Broadway show to the opera,” she said. “And this is Grand Opera.”
Leave it to been-there-done-that front-row fixture Sharon Stone to sum up the essence of the brand.
“Christian Dior knew taste, knew style and knew what made a woman pretty,” she mused. “And that hasn’t changed today.”