Christian Dior, Models posing in new Christian Dior collection. © Loomis Dean/Getty Images

LONDON.-The V&A’s autumn exhibition, The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957, will explore one of the most glamorous and remarkable decades in fashion history. Starting with the impact of Christian Dior’s New Look after the Second World War, it will look at the work of Dior and his contemporaries during the period when haute couture was at its height.
Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the launch of the New Look in 1947, the exhibition will show how Dior’s ballerina-skirted dresses signalled the return to luxury and elegance after wartime austerity. It will examine the world of couture, highlighting the work of Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain in Paris and their London counterparts Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies.
Other successful designers of the time - such as Fath, Griffe, Stiebel, and Michael of London - will feature in a broad survey of the decade. More than 100 dresses will be on display including daywear, cocktail and evening dresses made for society and royalty alongside photographs by Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon and original Hollywood and documentary film. There will be audio recordings, textiles and archival material such as bills of sales and letters. More than 95 per cent of the dresses are from the V&A’s own fashion collections. Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=21162

Autumn/Winter 1945/5 from the Ligne-H collection. Dior 'Zemire' dress.