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36 WHAT'S IN A NAME BY CHRISTINA GEYER F ashion is decidedly at a tipping point — and the shift is on. Gone are the days when a single individual can create a fashion house so revolutionary, so poignant to the mode of the day that we affiliate a name, a person, and an aesthetic instantly as one. Perhaps this is due to the fast-fashion mentality in which we now live, when little care is given to the quality or person creating a garment — or, to the pace of the fashion cycle that oft fosters burnout rather than creative bounty. Could it be economic? The world of couture in the new millennium is largely for brand equity and show, while the clientele purchasing made-to-order trousseaux from a single favored designer or two is shrinking. Those who laid the foundation for fashion as we know it were the Coco Chanels, the Yves Saint Laurents, the Christian Diors. All built maisons that endure today, and despite their founders no longer being alive, their faces and their style are iconic in the truest definition of the word. These individuals built the silhouettes and techniques for future designers to reference, inadvertently shaping the industry while building their individual legacies. What designer of the new millennium will have the same ability to transcend generations through craftsmanship, artistry, and vision. Whose name will we remember. Only time will tell. AS THE DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART OPENS A RETROSPECTIVE OF MAISON CHRISTIAN DIOR THIS MONTH, WE LOOK AT THE POWER OF ONE MAN'S SINGULAR INFLUENCE ON THE ART OF FASHION. And so it is that we find ourselves celebrating Christian Dior for precisely those reasons: His legacy has lived for more than 70 years, his name a symbol of Parisian haute couture. In the short-attention-span world of social-media fashion, there could not be a more poignant time than today to pay homage to Dior — a true artist of fashion. This month, the Dallas Museum of Art opens a major retrospective examining the designer's legacy, which began with the dawn of his New Look in 1947 and continues today at the hands of subsequent creative directors including Yves Saint Laurent (who took the reins briefly in 1958), Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons, and presently Maria Grazia Chiuri. "Dior: From Paris to the World" was organized by the Denver Art Museum, with more than 100 haute couture dresses, accessories, photographs, original sketches, and video footage on display. The range is vast and includes a satin dress worn by Lee Radziwell; Elizabeth Taylor's chiffon and embroidered faille evening gown from 1961; a slinky dinner dress worn by Nicole Kidman at the 1997 Academy Awards; and the iconic brocade silk-satin evening gown donned by Princess Grace of Monaco in 1957. For Dallas, the exhibition's second and final stop, the same garments will all be in play — many of which rarely leave the fashion's houses archives, the Dior Héritage Collection. But, they will be housed within a reimagined spatial environment, designed by OMA partner and director Shohei Shigematsu. Sarah Schleuning, the DMA's senior curator of decorative arts and design, oversees the Dallas presentation. "The exhibition takes audiences through more than seven decades of innovation, bringing together the most exciting, dynamic, and pivotal pieces," she says. "Dior: From Paris to the World," May 19 – September 1, at the Dallas Museum of Art. Christian Dior's "Liszt" ball gown, Spring/Summer 1950, from the book Dior and His Decorators (Vendome) © ASSOCIATION WILLY MAYWALD