J’Adore Dior

“This book is the perfect marriage of haute couture and photography,” writes artist Jeff Koons in the forward to Dior Couture. Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, the book is a love letter to the house of Dior. Demarchelier has worked to assemble striking of images of models wearing classic Dior designs envisioned by Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, and John Galliano, whose work dominates the pages. (Gianfranco Ferré, who was creative director from 1989 to 1996, is left out.) Galliano may have smudged the name when he departed in a Feb. 2011 scandal, but certainly his vision of Dior Couture speaks for itself. Here are 150 ensembles that continue to resonate as bold fashion statements, and live up to the French haute couture empire’s namesake. Ingrid Sischy writes in the essay, “Perhaps the most astute proclamation was uttered by Hebe Dorsey, the fashion editor of The International Herald Tribune, who said, ‘Dior had won the war for France.’”