CHRISTIAN DIOR ET GRANVILLE

CHRISTIAN DIOR ET GRANVILLE

‘Aux Sources De La Légende’

Now open until 7^th January 2018

Musée Christian Dior

Villa Les Rhumbs

50400 Granville

France

www.musee-dior-granville.com

Many museums have close links with their subject matter. Few museums can have such close an association with its ‘name’ as the Musée Christian Dior.  For the villa housing the museum, Les Rhumbs, was where M. Dior spent his early years.

As part of the celebrations for the 70^th year of the Dior fashion house, this exhibition reveals how Granville and the Dior family home influenced and shaped M. Diors thinking and career. 

The clothes on display are magnificent and beautifully set out. Each case is imaginatively set and the information boards are full of detail. The museum supplies excellent non French language notes, so you don’t have to miss a thing.As well as the garments themselves the exhibition enables you to discover what the rooms of the house were used for when the Dior family lived there. I have been to many exhibits here, but this added a dimension to the experience for me. Knowing you were in the dining room or that this room was Christian Dior’s bedroom was delightful.I enjoyed finding out snippets from the past… discovering ‘Miss Dior’ perfume was named after Catherine Dior, Christians younger sister. Reading that the pink and grey colours that figure in Dior history stem from the pink painted house and the grey gravel garden paths. Finding out that M. Dior ‘fell in love ‘with British food and enjoyed a full English and mince pies (though not simultaneously I trust.) It is all background and explanation and the sort of historical detail that is very satisfying to know. As an example of the meticulous and stylish way these exhibitions are managed, one case held a pink day dress from CD’s New York collection S/S1957 and a grey dress from A/W 1951’s Haute Couture. Both perfect examples of the signature colours and as the final touch, the pink dress had a grey card with its details and the grey a pink. A small thing, but very pleasing.

The clothes shown were a mixture of early Dior and later designers who carried the torch onwards.  Marc Bohan…Raf Simons …both had their day. There was too much of Galliano there I felt. His clothes are so OTT and theatrical as to jar against the style and flair of the other designers.

I enjoyed my visit tremendously. Do go if you can…the gardens are (almost) worth the trip alone.

La Villa Les Rhumbs c1920 & present day.
LHS ©Musée Christian Dior.RHS Collection Ville de Granville ©Benoit Croisy.

A Museum In A Shirt Factory. Un Musée Dans Une Usine De Chemises.

Musée de la Chemiserie

Argenton-sur-Creuse

Indre. France

http://www.museedelachemiserie.fr

Shirts in colour and shirts in white

Colourful cufflinks and collars in a box.

The museum of shirts has certainly got shirts, but it also has cufflinks and collars, waistcoats and dressing gowns.

To give it its full title ‘Musee de la Chemiserie et de l’élégance masculine’ (or the Museum of shirt making and masculin elegance if you prefer) is a gem. Single themed museums can be a little specialist, focused if you will, but they can also introduce you to ideas and styles and images that you have missed,

The museum building is a former shirt factory and is large and light and airy.

There are temporary and permanent exhibitions.

Up to the permanent exhibition first.

17thcentury

First you see the white billowing shirts associated with cavaliers and cads.

Then into a beautifully laid out gallery, which gives the impression of a gentleman’s club. Notices are in English and French, ensuring you get all the details.

 

The story of the shirt and its place in society plays out case by case. White shirts, collarless shirts. Colourful shirts.

And a few curios like the shirt worn by Frank Sinatra, designed with a panel from the back buttoning at the front to make sure his shirt stayed neatly tucked in when he was on stage.

There are work shirts and sport shirts and military too, contextualised with notes, ties, and original packaging.

Collarless shirts and collars to go with them abound. A few waistcoats have their place, as does mention of personal hygiene and bathing habits.

Pleasing to note that laundry was sent by to England by the rich in the 1900s. England was considered to be the only country that had the secret of perfect laundering and starching.

 

 My favourite part was the cufflinks.

 The case of 1970s cufflinks speaks volumes about taste in the 70s, not to mention how strong shirt wearers arms where.

Much use is made to very great effect of contemporary publicity materials. From a gorgeous art deco green shirt advertising prop to a Don Draperesque crisp white shirt and tie shop fitting.

       

 There is a marvellous recreated workroom you can walk round, describing daily life in the factories.Sadly it also details how the shirt industry has shrunk. During the Belle Époque (1871-1914), described as the golden age of the shirt factories in the region, 3000 workers were employed in various workshops; by the 1960s 17 workshops employed 1200 machinists. They made for Dior and Pierre Cardin amongst others. No wonder Argenton was known as ‘La Cité de la Chemise’….’The City of the Shirt’.

The temporary exhibition at the moment is about dressing gowns. It is charmingly entitled ‘Home Sweet Home, Cocooning au masculin’, which is a lovely title what ever language you speak.

         

Well worth a visit to this and to the whole museum.

With grateful thanks to the Museum and to the Curator Mme Nathalie Gaillard.

Merci Mme Gaillard. Votre musée est splendide et très intéressant. J'espère que quiconque lira ce blog pensera à visiter le musée un jour. Merci gracieusement.

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