Dior's S/S 2012 Haute Couture collection in Shanghai

Christian Dior presents showcases his spring/summer 2012 Haute Couture collection in Shanghai, China. On the occasion of the spring/summer 2012 Haute Couture presentation in Shanghai, Christian Dior looks back on the long love story that ties it to China.

The long, single-breasted overcoat was worn simply with a Chinese-inspired hat known as a tonkinois. The model dates from 1947. Its name: Shanghai. From his very first collection, Christian Dior cast his gaze toward the East. But, in the end, the look never made it to the runway. This was perhaps because its straight lines ran counter to the first collection’s 8 silhouette. However, the following year, models dubbed Chine, Pékin and Shanghai paid homage to the Middle Kingdom.

There followed Nuit de Chine, Bleu de Chine, Hong Kong and Chinoiseries. Designers Yves Saint Laurent and Marc Bohan, the respective successors to Christian Dior after the master’s untimely death, both drew inspiration from the same vision: Shanghai returned as a suit in 1958 and Chinoiseries as a coat in 1963. And yet, none of the three had ever traveled there. They were creating a fantasy, a dream of China as they saw it from afar.

The real China became a part of the House’s history several years later. The first presentation was held in Hong Kong in 1970; a boutique opened there in 1980. In 1986, Frédéric Castet, the designer of Dior furs, presented his collection in Beijing.

And in 1994, the House opened a boutique in Shanghai, its first in the People’s Republic of China.

In the early 2000s, John Galliano, who was then the artistic director of ready-to-wear and Haute Couture collections for the House, went on a research tour of Beijing. He attended makeup sessions at the national opera. During this highly codified ritual, divas create a kind of mask that will allow them to symbolize, on their face, the emotions they wish to express. From this, the couturier drew inspiration for his Spring-Summer 2003 collection, and this esthetic remained a strong element of Dior runway presentations until the close of the decade.

In 2008, Christian Dior & Chinese Artists, a show mounted in Beijing, strengthened ties further: 21 artists from the Chinese contemporary scene were given carte blanche to reinterpret the world that is the Maison Dior. The result was a remarkable mix of perspectives and impressions inspired by Dior’s fashion archives - a unique dialogue across time and continents.