Inspire: Christian Dior Designer of Dreams

Fashion-Enter’s apprentices are regularly offered enrichment sessions outside of the classroom / fashion studio environment. This month, May 2019, it was the turn of ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ at the V&A.

The ‘sold out’ exhibition spans the fashion houses’ impeccable designs from 1947 to the present day, exploring its enduring influence and on-going relationship with Britain. The apprentices were able to take in couture details, design sketches and have a really close look at each and every design.

Here’s what some of the apprentices had to say about the exhibition:

“The Dior show was amazing, thanks so much for taking us. It was really inspiring and a little overwhelming to see so many pieces of such amazing quality all together. I went straight back to work at Ralph & Russo afterwards as I was really motivated to work even more and I wanted to finish a corset I’d been working on. I really liked the progression of the shows curation too which made it easy to understand the history of the label and its creative director’s individual styles.”  – Matthew Morishima, Ralph & Russo

“I feel extremely lucky to have been given the chance to attend this exhibition. Getting to see the toiles and couture gowns in person felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s amazing to see the calibre of craftsmanship and tradition of excellence that Dior has established and maintained. As someone training at a fashion house the exhibition has demonstrated the level I should be striving for in my work. Dior has managed to create an aesthetic that is timeless and elegant, which are attributes that I hope to encapsulate when creating garments.” – Hawwa Diment, Ralph & Russo

“The Dior Exhibition was absolutely fabulous! Beautifully presented in every way, really well laid out and I moved through the rooms with ease and expectation. The exhibits were stunning and I was able to enjoy excellent views of them all. I loved the “Garden room” with the paper flower garlands and the last room ‘Ballgown room’ was such a feast for the eyes! The display was accompanied by an amazing light show with special effects on the ceiling and walls.

“The room that inspired me the most was ‘The toiles room’ – I was very interested to see the working design which would go on to be realised and become famous. My imagination was left in a wonderful world of wonder and fashion as I experienced the amazing work of Dior! Thank-you so much for this opportunity!” – Fiorenza Arinosci, Harrods

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is on at the V&A, London until 1st September 2019. The exhibition has sold out however a very limited amount of tickets are available to purchase daily at 10am from the Grand Entrance on a first-come, first-served basis; these tickets are for times throughout the day on that day only.