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Conjuring up the spirit of Christian Dior

V&A Museum exhibit a hot ticket in London this summer
Dior
Christian Dior’s passion for flowers and gardens has been woven into its design details and luxurious fabrics since the House first opened its doors in 1946.

“Unmissable!” declared British VOGUE. “2019’s hottest ticket” said The Times. So hot in fact that “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum sold out only a few weeks after opening in February.

Between now and the exhibit’s close on Sept. 1, only a limited number of coveted tickets will be released by the world-renowned museum of art and design.

But there is a side door.  

Dior
Miniature dress models help designers and costumers to work out ideas before investing in the time and expense of creating a full-scale garment. - Supplied, A. Wareham

A few blocks from the V&A, at the Franklin Hotel in London’s Kensington district, afternoon tea is being served in style – the menu a tribute to the creative legacy of Christian Dior. Joining me is a friend of more than 30 years -- Alison. We met as “au pair mädchen” in Ahrensburg, a town near Hamburg, Germany, the winter the Berlin Wall came down.

Our tea is served in the hotel’s monogrammed china pots. Bespoke sweets and savouries follow including a warm, velvety cheese and truffle Éclair Cousu-Main, Chef Alfredo Russo’s tribute to Christian Dior’s cookbook La Cuisine Cousu-Main.

 At £55 per person, The Franklin’s “culinary fashion experience” includes tickets to the Dior exhibit. Alison and I breeze through the V&A’s main entrance, past the afternoon queue and straight to The Sainsbury Gallery. The first ensemble we see is a John Galliano for Dior. It seems conservative for a Galliano but I’m thrilled to see the mannequin’s black high tops are surprisingly like the ones I’m wearing. The statue won’t be walking anywhere, but I’ll spend the better part of our trip touring London, Devon and Wiltshire counties in these (for the ankle-support and room for orthotics they are my favourite traveling shoes). 

Dior
An elegant nod to the House of Dior’s parfumerie, the bottle contains Calvados brandy from Normandy to spritz on sweets like this lemon macaron, named “The Pink House” after Dior’s childhood home. - Supplied, A. Wareham

We work our way through room after room of Dior; there are cocktail, tea and wedding dresses, day suits, pant suits and ballgowns. There are “New Look” dresses from the 1950s with skirts so voluminous they incited public protests for their post-war extravagance.

We are surrounded by stunning examples from the collections of the six creative directors (Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and, today, Maria Grazia Chiuri) who have each taken a turn to interpret the House of Dior code after the untimely death of its namesake in 1957. 

Christian Dior was 52 when he died. I hesitate to say “just” or “only” because being 52 myself, I know there can be a great deal of living done in this many years. Travelling, too, if one is fortunate. Christian Dior was a traveller and even named dresses after the places that inspired them. A way, perhaps, to instantly conjure up a far away place and time, the way I will every time I put on the high tops and neoprene dress I wore in London for tea and Dior.

If you go:

Stay: AirBnB (airbnb.ca) finds the affordable in London’s otherwise pricey Chelsea district. 

Eat: Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams Tea at The Franklin starhotelscollezione.com/en/our-hotels/the-franklin-london/restaurants-and-bars/a-culinary-fashion-experience-inspired-by-the-victoria-e-albert-museum’s-christian-dior-designer-of-dreams-exhibition.html

See: The fashion collections at The Victoria & Albert Museum vam.ac.uk.