The Dior Retrospective’s Next Stop Is Riyadh

TRAVELING SHOW: The “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” retrospective is all set for the next stop on its world tour.

The blockbuster exhibit, which debuted at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2017 to celebrate the label’s 70^th anniversary, is gearing up to open in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this November to tie in with the Saudi Season festival of music and culture.

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Opening Nov. 21 through April 2 next year at the Saudi National Museum, the popular exhibition has been reimagined for the occasion with a specially designed narrative curated by fashion historian Florence Müller with scenography by Nathalie Crinière, both behind the staging of the original exhibition in Paris.

It explores the brand’s seven decades of history, including its iconic address at 30 Avenue Montaigne, and Christian Dior’s love of gardens, of the natural world and of Versailles.

Haute couture designs by Christian Dior and his successors at the house — Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri today — feature in the latest iteration of the retrospective.

Since its success in Paris, the exhibition has gone on tour to several cities, often tailored to the specific location to celebrate links with the iconic designer and the history of the house.

In New York, at the Brooklyn Museum, the show celebrated the couturier’s love of the United States, where he established a presence just a year after launching his fashion house in 1947. At London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, connections with the U.K. were explored. In Tokyo, where the exhibition was staged from December 2022 until May 2023, the scenography explored Dior’s love of Japanese culture.

There have also been editions at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chengdu, China.

It is not the first Middle Eastern stop for the exhibition on its ongoing world tour. Doha, Qatar’s M7 fashion and design hub hosted the retrospective in late 2021.

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