Christian Dior

Christian Dior has engineered a remarkable commercial breakthrough based on top quality, highly creative products that appeal to a youthful, refined clientele. The company is undoubtedly the biggest hit of today's fashion world. Yves Saint Laurent becomes lead designer for Dior, launching his own career. Bernard Arnault acquires failed Boussac group--including control of Christian Dior--for one franc. Christian Dior acquires controlling share of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, founding the LVMH luxury goods empire; begins cutting back number of Dior licenses. Arnault names John Galliano as lead designer in order to revive Christian Dior image. Dior buys back control of its ready-to-wear line and retail chain, including 13 stores in Japan. Hedi Slimane is named to create new men's fashion line; company launches new retail concept, Christian Dior Haute Joaillerie. Christian Dior S.A. remains a leader in the world of fashion after more than 50 years. Yet Christian Dior has grown far beyond its high fashion origins to become one of the world's leading luxury goods holding companies, through LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, led by Bernard Arnault. While Christian Dior continues to lend its name and prestige as the parent company to Arnault's luxury goods empire, it remains a tiny part of the company's overall sales. With EUR 350 million in sales, Christian Dior Couture represents just 2 percent of the company's total sales of more than EUR 12 billion in 2001. Christian Dior S.A. is organized into two main divisions: Christian Dior Couture and LVMH. The latter includes holdings in Wine & Spirits (Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug, etc.); Watches & Jewelry (TAG Heuer; Ebel; Zenith); Fashion & Leather Goods (Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Donna Karan, Christian Lacroix, Kenzo); Selective Retailing (DFS; Sephora; Le Bon Marché; La Samaritaine); and Perfumes & Cosmetics (Parfums Christian Dior; Guerlain; Parfums Givenchy; Kenzo Parfums). Other LVMH interests include Art & Auction magazine and the Tajan art auction house. Yet Christian Dior Couture remains the company's flagship--and icon of the worldwide fashion industry--and the primary subject of this profile. John Galiano has served as the fashion house's artistic director since 1996 and is credited with revitalizing the company's image. Since 2001, Galiano has been seconded by Hedi Slimane, in charge of creating a new men's line for the house. In addition to its haute couture apparel, Christian Dior operates a network of 130 boutiques around the world. Christian Dior was born in 1905. As heir to a family fortune built on fertilizer and chemicals, Dior had little ambition to finish college, instead whiling away his 20s in Paris bars in the company of poets and artists. Dior dabbled in art, and in 1928, launched a gallery financed with a large gift from his father. But when heavy borrowing and the Great Depression combined to bankrupt the family business in the early 1930s, Dior's family was forced to sell homes, furniture, jewelry, and other heirlooms. Dior moved in with a friend in Paris and decided to utilize his artistic talents in the fashion industry. Beginning in the mid-1930s, he designed on a freelance basis, selling drawings of hats and gowns to magazines and couture houses. He snared a full-time position with Robert Piguet's fashion design house in 1938, but was soon drafted into service for World War II. Assigned to "farm duty"--helping farmers' wives and other short-handed agriculturists tend their land--Dior was fortunate to be in unoccupied Provence when the German Army advanced in June 1940 and was subsequently discharged from the service. He returned to Paris in 1941 and found work as a design assistant with the couture house of Lucien Lélong, designing custom-made dresses, suits, and ball gowns for some of the wealthiest women in the world. In 1946, French fabric maven Marcel Boussac--then the nation's wealthiest man--offered to back Dior's launch