PARIS, FRANCE – Published by Flammarion, A Season at Dior invites us to discover 30 Montaigne between 1956 and 1957, a year marked by the death of Christian Dior. A 21-year-old German from Bremen, Jürgen Michaelsen, was “miraculously” recruited – as he puts it – by Christian Dior himself to work at the Studio, the House’s inner sanctum where the New Look triumphed in February 1947.
A Season at Dior by Yorn Michaelsen
From then on, he would discover French haute couture in that cradle of Parisian elegance. At the ‘baptism’ of the designs from the collection he helped create – the Libreline – Monsieur Dior christened him ‘Yorn’: a name that had the ring of a couture label, a prophetic sign of the designer he would become, soon at the helm of his own House.“Personally, I always find the early years, when a man is carving out his career, the most exciting part of any autobiography,” wrote Monsieur Dior in his autobiography Dior by Dior.
A Season at Dior captures that precise moment: the moment when a vision takes shape, a vocation comes to life, and an inner freedom asserts itself. Through this invaluable account, Yorn Michaelsen paints a sensitive portrait of Christian Dior – discreet, kind, generous, visionary – and brings back the dazzling atmosphere of that formative year.
A Season at Dior by Yorn Michaelsen
Underlying it all is a deep sense of gratitude: that of a young man to whom a door was opened, and who, decades later, reflects on that decisive gesture. He brings to life the 30 Montaigne of that era in all its vibrancy: the Studio, the Ateliers, the premières, the petites mains, the models, the sales assistants, the House’s ‘high command’ – a whole constellation of talents and personalities who, together, breathe life into the Dior dream.
Illustrated with a photo essay by Loomis Dean, shot for LIFE magazine, the book traces the making of a haute couture collection. As the images unfold, they reveal the day-to-day life of the Studio – that creative heart, that laboratory of ideas where designs are conceived, and silhouettes take shape, before being entrusted to the expert hands of the Ateliers.
A Season at Dior by Yorn Michaelsen
Photographs by Richard Avedon, Henry Clarke, Willy Maywald, Mark Shaw and Henri Cartier-Bresson, combined with previously unpublished material from the Dior archives, provide a rare visual record.
A Season at Dior is not only about fashion. It tells the story of a generation that observes, absorbs, and then dares to chart its own course. After Dior, and notably Madame Grès, for whom he worked as a pattern-maker, Yorn Michaelsen forged his own path and, in 1962, became the first German designer to open a fashion house bearing his own name at 144 Champs-Élysées.
These pages convey a simple idea: to create is to remain free, curious and joyful. It is a way of embracing heritage without freezing it in time – an approach that Jonathan Anderson is now bringing to Dior with new energy. It is a story of transmission: the story of a passionate young man learning to see and beginning to bring his dreams to life.
by Chidozie Obasi