Ensemble, Christian Dior, ca. 1970, Courtesy MUDE - Museu do Design e da Moda, Colecção Francisco Capelo

The ensemble is composed by a long jacket and a pencil skirt; both items are made of grey wool and decorated with intricate embroideries in silver and golden thread. It is a creation of the Maison Christian Dior from the 1970s.

The outfit is characterised by a streamlined cut, enriched by flat decorations and tridimensional applications that make the whole ensemble a unique example of high manufacture.

The ensemble probably belongs to one of the collections produced in the 1970 by Dior, in the years in which designer Marc Bohan was at the helm of the maison. Marc Bohan was followed Yves Saint Laurent as head of the design team in 1958, and kept his position till 1989. His design aesthetic was dominated by an attention to balance and measure, both in cut and decorations, and a rejection of the excesses in favour of simplicity and elegant sobriety.
The fascination with foreign traditions was strongly felt by Bohan; the motif of the embroidery, drawing elegant lines that intertwine to create meanders, leaves and flowers, seems to recall some oriental patterns, together with the fastening of the jacket that reminds a chinese knot.

The object is part of MUDE Archive. Discover more on the Europeana fashion portal.