The exhibition is a tribute to the first perfume produced by Dior in 1947, “Miss Dior.”
The passion and creativity of the French designer Christian Dior go further than his beautiful bags, perfumes, or clothes. His genius continues to live on through the spectacular installations of contemporary designers. Thanks to Japanese architect Shohei Shigematsu and the Dior Japan team, we can admire another fantastic exhibition from the French Maison.
Hosted in the Roppongi Museum - from 16 June to 15 July - the exhibition is a tribute to the first perfume produced by Dior in 1947, “Miss Dior.” “The Perfume of Love,” so named by Christian Dior, is an ode to his beloved sister Catherine Dior.
The exhibition presents - in addition to Dior's couture works, objects, and archive collections - some drawings and works by various artists, such as René Gruau and Mats Gustafson, Yukimasa Ida, Sabine Marcelis, Haruka Kojin, Etsu Egami.
“Journey of a Bow”, the first room, tells the past and present of the perfume through the symbol that distinguishes it: the bow. Each Miss Dior bottle is adorned with a ribbon tied around it. Set on the wall and wrapped in the backlit ribbon of the Miss Dior logo, photos, illustrations, perfumes, and other objects embellish the environment.
Once through the first room, a limited edition of the new Miss Dior bottle awaits the visitor. Designed by the French artist Eva Jospin, it is placed in the center of the circular room. It is a genuinely immersive gallery with meticulously embroidered walls, which recall a dream garden of spring flowers and leaves.
White veils with a harmonious flow descend from the ceiling frame the Miss Dior Haute Couture dress born in 1949. “Field of flowers” sees the dress adorned with floral embroidery as the protagonist, which, when blooming, creates the Miss Dior fragrance. The scent of jasmine, rose, tuberose, orange blossom, and sambac jasmine emanate from singular diffusers arranged along the room's walls.
As Christian Dior stated:
Perfume is the most important complement to a woman's personality,
it's the finishing touch of a dress.
The painting by Japanese artist Yukimasa Ida, which portrays Christian Dior and his muses - his mother Madeleine and sister Catherine - introduces the visitor to “Stories of a Miss”. A pink ribbon wraps the entire environment, divided into various exhibition spaces. A twisting of emotions and memories from his first New Look collection - created in the same year as Miss Dior perfume - to the first fragrance bottles of Miss Dior, to the sketches and photos.
An extremely red environment - with cubes coming out of every point of the room - welcomes the “Miss Dior: The birth of ready-to-wear” collection launched in 1967. Short coats, sheath dresses, and embroidered shorts show a new style of the Maison Dior, which celebrates the idea of varied and absolute femininity.
“Dior illustrated” in a splendid pink setting, with draped walls, collects some of the illustrations by the artists René Gruau and Mats Gustafson. Christian Dior, a great art enthusiast, began his career as a gallery owner before becoming a stylist. Among the various illustrations, one particularly caught my interest: that of the Swedish artist Mats Gustafson from 2013. A watercolor painting portrays a woman's profile in delicate colors, wrapped in a black scarf. Its simplicity and elegance perfectly reflect the canons of the Maison Dior.
In “Miss Dior dream” all the Miss Dior dresses worn by the American actress Natalie Portman for the Miss Dior campaigns are displayed. The washi paper and wooden lattice structure recall the fantastic exhibition “Christian Dior: Designer of a dream” held at the MOT in 2023.
“Miss Dior dream” hosts garments designed by Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri and interspersed with artistic works such as “Ribbon” by Sabine Marcelis in 2021, “Reflectwo” by Haruka Kojin in 2021, and others.
In a screening room, all of Miss Dior's advertisements starring actress Natalie Portman are projected. Her words, recorded in an interview during the official opening, are the perfect conclusion for this article.
I think it's such a journey through the senses, and I'm excited for visitors to go on that journey,
because you're carried through a world of sound, touch, visuals, and then of scent,
and it's such a sensory journey