Since its foundation in 1947, it has been the embodiment of a vision of sublime femininity, a vision to which Christian Dior’s successors – Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré and John Galliano – have remained faithful while at the same time reinterpreting it in their own new and distinctive ways.

This book traces the history of the House of Dior through the constantly changing contours of its haute couture. Arranged in five sequences, one devoted to each artistic director, this panorama of the evolution of a couture house is also a history of fashion since 1947, of its dreams and realities, its big events - the shows and the society occassions - and main protagonists, its high-profile stars and clients, its models and journalists, and its indispensable petites mains, or seamstresses, and all the others who work their magic discreetly behind the scenes.

A visual feast of contemporary photographs by the most outstanding fashion photographers of their time, including Richard Avedon, Henry Clarke, Nick Knight, Willy Maywald, Irving Penn and many others, is complemented by Laziz Hamani’s studio portraits of 150 exceptional designs selected from the 120 haute couture shows presented by Dior in its sixty years of existence.