CIOR history

1949 brought an even larger expansion for the fashion house.

While the first Dior collection was already very successful, the company truly became a household name in the middle of the 1950’s.

Dior opened a New York outlet before the year was out and established London operations in 1952.

As the fashion house continued to thrive, 1955 brought the year a young, timid Yves Saint Laurent was employed by Christian Dior.

Upon Dior’s death in 1957, his assistant Yves Saint Laurent took over the couture house.

Saint Laurent held this position until 1960, when he was drafted into the French army.

When Saint Laurent was drafted into the armed service that year (he went on to found his own house in 1962), he was succeeded by Marc Bohan, another protégé of Dior hired to head the London outlet shortly before the founder's death.

Although the menswear line was originally founded in 1970 by Marc Bohan, it was no where near as successful as the womenswear line and the boutique was shut down.

Despite its size, several imperatives of the maturing industry--consolidation, competition from imports, the shift to synthetics--had knocked Boussac from the top of France's fabric heap to a struggling number five by 1971.

When Boussac finally went bankrupt, a group of investors led by Bernard Arnault acquired it for "one symbolic franc" in December 1984.

Gianfranco Ferre became the company’s head designer in the year 1989.

By the middle of the 1990’s, the Dior company had an overall net income of 26.9 million dollars.

By 1991, when Arnault sold a minority stake in Dior on the public market, LVMH had grown to become France's top luxury goods group and its second-largest publicly-traded firm.

Francois Baufume, who succeeded Vindry as managing director of Dior Couture in 1993, continued to reduce licensees, which numbered around 120 by mid-decade.

By 1995, the label's revenue rose to 177 million USD, with a net income of $26.9 million.

Sales: FFr 1.03 billion (United States $177 million) (1996)

Under the influence of Anna Wintour, Editor-In-Chief of Vogue, Dior appointed John Galliano as creative director in 1997, replacing Gianfranco Ferré. The choice of British designer sparked some controversy as once again, a non-Frenchman held the creative reigns.

In July 2000, Hedi Slimane succeeded Patrick Lavoix as lead designer for Dior Homme.

In January 2001, Hedi Slimane, new creator of the “Homme” line, presents his first collection based on a new contemporary masculine concept.

The label found itself in a "public relations nightmare." Galliano was, naturally, fired in March just before the debut of his Fall / Winter 2011 collection, which commenced without him.

Hedi Slimane presented his first collection for Dior on July 2nd, the Fall / Winter 2012 haute-couture line - it thrived.

In 2016, it was announced that Maria Grazia Chiuri would succeed Hedi Slimande as artistic director.