"Bar"

Design House:: House of Dior (French, founded 1947)

Designer:: Christian Dior (French, Granville 1905–1957 Montecatini)

Date:: spring/summer 1947

Culture:: French

Medium:: silk

Credit Line:: Gift of Mrs. John Chambers Hughes, 1958

Accession Number:: C.I.58.34.30

Not on view

In 1947, Christian Dior presented a collection of wasp-waisted and hip-padded designs. The American press immediately dubbed it the "New Look." The collection was a repudiation of the styles of the 1920s and 1930s, and it was also clearly indebted to the styles and body-shapers of the late nineteenth century. "The Bar Suit" was considered the most iconic model in the collection, manifesting all the attributes of Dior's dramatic atavism.

Marking: [label] "Christian Dior, Paris"

Essays
Christian Dior (1905–1957)
Costume in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Haute Couture
Twentieth–Century Silhouette and Support

Timelines
France, 1900 A.D.–present

Manus × Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

Department

Costume Institute (33,842)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Christian Dior (282)

House of Dior (639)

Object Type / Material

Silk (33,792)

Geographic Location