Village party (Fête au village), cocktail dress
1955 {A line, spring-summer 1955}
Medium
silk, cotton (embroidery), acetate (lining)
Measurements
98.0 cm (centre back) 24.0 cm (waist, flat)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and the Campbell-Pretty Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2017
© Christian Dior Couture
Gallery location
Level 3, NGV International
About this work
Radically reworking the female silhouette with his 1947 debut collection, Christian Dior quickly established a set of house codes, two of which were present in his first collection: flowers and the hourglass silhouette. Village party incorporates both of these codes: it is cinched at the waist to evoke the hourglass shape and embroidered with streams of pink flower buds surrounded by vivid green leaves.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
(France)
Inscription
label, left seamline, woven in black on white silk: PATRON ORIGINAL / Christian Dior / PARIS 52192
Accession Number
2017.606
Department
International Fashion and Textiles
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest