In 1946,
Marcel Boussac, a successful entrepreneur, invited Dior to design for
Philippe et Gaston, a Paris fashion house launched in 1925. Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand. In 1946, with Boussac's backing, Dior founded his fashion house, ensuring exclusive control over the company and securing a third of all profits in addition to his salary. was
Corolle (literally the botanical term
corolla or
circlet of flower petals in English). Dior's debut collection included a launch of 90 garments displayed in outfits. Despite being called "New," the Corolle line was clearly drawn from styles of the
Edwardian era, refining and crystallizing trends in skirt shape and waistline that had been burgeoning in high fashion since the late 1930s. The house employed
Pierre Cardin as head of its tailoring
atelier for the first three years of its existence, and it was Cardin who designed one of the most popular of the Corolle ensembles, the 1947 Bar suit. The "
New Look" revolutionized women's dress, reestablished
Paris as the centre of the fashion world after
World War II, and made Dior a virtual arbiter of fashion for much of the following decade. Dior's collection was an inspiration to many women post-war and helped them regain their love for fashion. more bust emphasis; and bulkier coats, plus an alternate narrow silhouette. Each season thereafter would feature a newly titled Dior "line," in the manner of 1947's "Corolle" line, that would be trumpeted in the fashion press: the Envol and Cyclone/Zigzag lines in 1948; the Trompe l'Oeil and Mid-Century lines in 1949; the Vertical and Oblique lines in 1950; the Oval and Longue/Princesse lines in 1951; the Sinueuse and Profilėe lines in 1952; the Tulipe and Vivante/Cupola lines in 1953; the Muguet/Lily of the Valley line and H-Line in 1954; the A-Line and Y-Line in 1955; the Flèche/Arrow/F-Line and Aimant/Magnet line in 1956; and the Libre/Free and Fuseau/Spindle lines in 1957, followed by successor
Yves Saint Laurent's Trapeze line in 1958. The autumn 1954 H-line was one of his most controversial. Sometimes said to free the waist, it actually bound the torso from neckline to hips. Dior's intention was to give an impression of youth and also recreate the small, high, round breasts of the torsos of 16th century portraiture like that produced by
Jean and
François Clouet. He said that the H-line name was both a metaphor for the silhouette and a reference to the 16th-century era of French king
Henry II. Critics pronounced the silhouette "flat" and too similar to the flapper look of the late 1920s (a common comparison for the waistless silhouettes of the 1950s) and the foundation garments required for the look were referred to as "ban the bosom" bras. While the bust-binding would be fleeting, the emphasis on youth and a less constrained waist was part of a trend that would continue into the 1960s. The H-line is a good example of the line Dior straddled in the 1950s between a highy structured form and a more relaxed one, as it did continue somewhat a trend toward uncinching the waist while at the same time binding the breasts with boning. The tension between heavily structured clothes and more relaxed, comfortable ones characterized 1950s fashion, with
Jacques Fath representing those favoring heavy structure and
Chanel's 1954 reentry into the field representing more ease and comfort. While the fifties fashion era had started with Dior's famously corseted, boned, stiffened, padded, and lined 1947 Corolle collection, the general trend in the 1950s was toward more ease, while still maintaining some shape. The move toward more ease could be seen in several of Dior's collections, like his fall 1951 Long/Princess line that was his first without extensive stiffening and his spring 1952 Sinuous line that was comprised of soft blouses, cardigans, and skirts. Reversions toward more structure were seen in his fall 1952 Profile line that brought back stiff angularity, his spring 1953 Tulip line that restored bust padding, and of course his torso-binding fall 1954 H-line. All Dior collections from 1955 onward were less confining, for the most part, though almost all 1950s designers presented hobbling sheath skirts throughout the decade, including Dior. The other main source of occasional controversy for Dior was hemlines, an obsession in the 1950s. His fall 1953 Cupola line included some skirts that raised the hemline to lengths that were startling to many observers, though they still perforce covered the knee. His fall 1956 Aimant line contained a handful of day skirts that dropped the hemline almost to the ankle, another startling move to some observers. These occasional controversial items only made up a portion of the garments in their respective collections, though; there were longer skirts in his Cupola collection and shorter skirts in his Aimant collection, as well as some less flattened torsos among his H-line offerings Dior's last collections, such as the “Libre” and “Fuseau” lines, continued moving toward a more fluid, relaxed silhouette, distancing from the structured designs of earlier years. These changes reflected Dior's response to the era's evolving social dynamics, foreshadowing styles that would become iconic in the late 1950s and 1960s. For his shoes, Dior initially used the most prominent footwear designer of the time,
Perugia, but during the early 1950s he partnered with Delman, who employed
Roger Vivier. Vivier would become Dior's preferred shoe designer of the end of the decade, continuing to produce shoes for the house after Dior's death into the 1960s, continuing sporadically even after he ended his official contract with
Dior in 1963. In 1955, 19-year-old
Yves Saint Laurent became Dior's design assistant. Dior told Saint Laurent's mother in 1957 that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him at Dior. She indicated later that she was confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 at the time, but he died later that year. ==Death==