Christian Dior sketching garden Paris
FRANCE – CIRCA 1950: Christian Dior in France in the 1950s. (Photo by KAMMERMAN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

In light of the release of the Dior Gem Bag Clutch, a little history lesson…

When Christian Dior left Paris for the first time for a complete tour of the United States on the tail-end of the summer of 1947, he did so “with a thousand absolutely essential suitcases”. A term so triggering amid the current pandemic, the mere thought of travelling internationally with a myriad of Dior luggage pieces seems all but a daydream at the moment.

Having achieved sudden fame with his haute couture designs in Paris, America would soon be privy to The New Look, an aesthetic influenced by his mother’s horticultural passion and the gardens of his childhood home in seaside Normandy. Mr Dior’s most famous fashion moments on foreign soil hinged on his love for botanical anatomy, namely a rose’s corolla (the tube formed by the petals of the base of the flower).

“I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and handspan waists above enormous spreading skirts,” Mr Dior wrote in his 1957 autobiography Dior by Dior.

“An ethereal appearance is only achieved by elaborate workmanship.”

The designer’s love of nature became part of his legacy and has been carried through the work of his six successive designers; Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and today, Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has been praised as much for her reverence of Monsieur Dior’s archives as she has for her acknowledgement of the power of a woman in today’s world.

Dior gem bag clutch
Credit: Dior.
Dior gem bag clutch
Credit: Dior.
the making of Dior gem bag clutch
Credit: Dior.

Chiuri and creative director of Dior Fine Jewellery Victoire de Castellane have together designed the Dior Gem Bag Clutch, the latest object of desire in the House Of Dior. Adorned with emblematic House jewels in gold and precious stones from the Rose Dior Bagatelle collection, the emerald satin clutch is a celebration of the art of detail and the exceptional craftsmanship Mr Dior so loved. And it makes perfect sense to have a rose in the prime position.

Dior gem bag clutch
Credit: Dior
Dior gem clutch bag
Credit: Dior.

See the incredible making of the minaudière below, as it is meticulously assembled and soldiered together by hand in the Dior ateliers. It’s mesmerising to watch.

Make no mistake, the Dior Gem Bag Clutch will make the essentials list come your next flight to Paris or New York or the moon.