Christian Dior Jewelry (1948-today)
Christian Dior dazzled the fashion world with his first collection in 1947. His new look required jewelry to accessorize his feminine styles such as beautifully crafted floral designs and other ladylike motifs such as bows.
Dior licensed costume jewelry to go along with his collections in 1948. They were versatile pieces worn on jackets or sweaters for day apparel and then again with formal attire for evening wear. While runway pieces were largely part of couture collections, jewelry was later made to go along with ready-to-wear lines.
Many of the early Dior pieces were made by the House of Gripoix, Robert Goosens and Roger Jean-Pierre. Additionally, a line was made by Schreiner of New York in 1949. Further collaborations in the 1950s yielded several ready-to-wear collections including those marked Mitchell Maer for Dior and Christian Dior by Kramer. Even more prolific was the impact of a mid-1950s collaboration with Swarovski with the introduction of the amazingly iridescent ‘Aurora Borealis’.
The majority of Dior’s jewelry from the 1950s onward was produced by Henkel & Grosse, a German firm with which the fashion house struck a licensing agreement that lasted for decades resulting in high-quality, collection-worthy pieces.
