The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947–1957: Touring

Exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

‘A golden age seemed to have come again’. Christian Dior, 1948.

Bendigo Art Gallery is proud to announce an outstanding exhibition for Summer 2008-09. The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957, organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum London, will be presented in Victoria exclusively at Bendigo Art Gallery.

The exhibition explores one of the most glamorous and remarkable decades in fashion history. Starting with the impact of Christian Dior’s New Look after the Second World War, it looks at the work of Dior and his contemporaries during the period when haute couture was at its height.

Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the launch of the New Look in 1947, the exhibition shows how Dior’s ballerina-skirted dresses signalled the return to luxury and elegance after wartime austerity. It examines the world of couture, highlighting the work of Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain in Paris and their London counterparts Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies. Other successful designers of the time – such as Fath, Griffe, Stiebel, and Michael of London – feature in a broad survey of the decade.

Touring

V&A, London: 22 September 2007–6 January 2008

Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia: 7 December 2008 – 22 March 2009