An essential feature of Paris today is the House of Dior.
The fashion establishment, which created the new look 11 years ago
Christian Dior died six weeks ago.
Dior was the man who introduced the new look in 1947.
And this year, put women into the sack.
I came here to find out what happens to a great fashion house
when the man who built up its reputation is no longer there.
- What is this rug made of?
This rug is made of mink tails.
It must be a very valuable rug.
Well, those are real mink tails and I think there’s about 700 mink tails.
- In this one rug?
Yes certainly.
- What are your problems now that Mr Dior is no longer here?
Well, that's not easy to talk about. But...
I think the most
important problem for all of us is to continue the work of Mr Dior
and Mr Dior himself in '48 after three collections
decided to create a sort of school of taste, able to continue his work.
And this team is made up,
made up of four person, Madame Zehnacker, Madame Raymonde.
She was a close friend of Mr Dior
and she worked with him for 15 years.
Madame Carre, Madame Marguerite.
Madame Carre knows perfectly the technique of this house.
While you perhaps know that our dresses
are built up in a quite a different way.
Particular way, technically speaking,
Madame Ricard will take care of the hats and accessorise the dresses
and of course Monsieur Saint Laurent will do the original sketches.
- Have you ever had a complaint
from two women who arrived at a party wearing the same dress from this house?
Well, of course, such a thing could happen, especially in
evening dresses, you see.
But we try to avoid it and Madame Luling, who's in charge of our sales department
and all our sales ladies are extremely careful about it.
They have to know who is going where.
So I must say we have no complaints.
And this is the young man who is heir to Christian Dior.
Yves Saint Laurent, age 21.
You can meet him in a few minutes.
The work of the design team is turned into reality by the mignonettes.
Today, the House of Dior employs 1,300 people compared with 90, 10 years ago.
The girls are working now
on the next collection to be revealed on January the 30th.
The designs are highly secret and there are severe penalties,
including prison for those who reveal them.
The girls are all well looked after.
Their eyes get special attention, and there is a Dior rest home in the country.
When they get married, they get a free trousseau by the house.
Under a picture of the master himself,
we come upon the team whose task it is to carry on his name and fame.
At the back of their minds they must be afraid that the magic will vanish.
No, it's no good copying these sketches.
They are not the designs for the next collection.
This is the studio of Christian Dior, the real holy of holies.
And I have with me Mr Dior's team of collaborators,
Madame Raymonde, Madame Marguerite, Madame Ricard and Monsieur Saint Laurent.
- The first question I would like to ask all of you is,
what was Mr Dior's conception of a woman?
His conception of a woman?
That she should be elegant.
Well kept, well groomed and very tidy, medium-sized
and always have a lot of charm.
- Monsieur Saint Laurent, do you agree with Mr Dior's idea
that women should be medium-sized and not be untidy?
Yes, I think so.
I think that the first thing for a woman,
must be well-groomed.
I'd like to ask you a personal question, which is that you are very young
to have the big responsibility of designing now for Dior.
- Do you think youth is a handicap in this matter?
I think that the age does not matter.
I started three years ago with Mr Dior and was trained by him,
and now I continue
with the same help that he had.