Dior’s New Documentary

by Natasha Wolff | April 14, 2015 3:33 pm

Aside from a beautiful tailored suit or perfectly fitted dress on the red carpet, it’s not often that fashion designers find themselves stars of the film industry. That won’t be the story for long if filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng has anything to do with it. Following successes with fashion documentaries like Valentino: The Last Emperor and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Tcheng turns his lens on fashion’s upper echelon once again, this time with newly appointed Dior Creative Director Raf Simons as he prepares his first Haute Couture collection only a few short weeks after being hired.

Here, explore a few of the best moments from the film.

‘Dior and I’

1.)  When Raf watches fit models parade through the studio in original Christian Dior pieces from the 1940s, carefully instructing his team to fold and manipulate the pieces, creating new silhouettes and modern day “New Looks.”

2.)  There are 12 concepts for Raf’s first couture collection.  After learning that he does not make sketches, everyone is given a file with the concepts and then asked to sketch hundreds of options. From these sketches the collection starts to take shape.

3.)  Once the sketches are finalized, Premiere Florence Chehet, the head seamstress handling dresses, lays out sketches of the collection for the team and allows each seamstresses to choose his or her own creation to bring to life.

‘Dior and I’

4.)  Watching as a full collection of fabrics come to life after Raf explains that his inspiration is drawn from every direction including swatches in the archives to modern day paintings.

5.)  When Raf is unhappy that samples for his fitting we delayed because of a client, he is reminded that at the end of the day couture is still a business for the clients. Premieres are available at a moments notice, sometimes flown around the globe to ease a clients concern about their creations.

6.)  After a very long night putting final touches on the collection, when the entire team of seamstresses walks through the show space for the first time, realizing this is where their creations will come to life and history will be made that afternoon.

Source URL: https://dujour.com/style/dior-and-i-raf-simons-movie/