Dreaming of Dior

Dreaming of Dior

Every dress tells a story....

Charlotte Smith has had more than her fair share of fabulous dresses and adventures. She lived life to the full in London, Paris and New York before falling in love with Australia and settling in the Blue Mountains.

In between making school lunches, Charlotte discovered she had inherited a priceless vintage clothing collection from her American Quaker godmother, Doris Darnell.

Then the boxes started arriving, hundreds of them, crammed with more than three thousand treasures dating from 1790 to 1995, from originals by Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga to precious wedding dresses and a pioneer woman's best and only dress, daintily mended to within an inch of its life.

But when Charlotte unearthed her godmother's book of stories about the dresses and the women who wore them, she discovered the true significance of what she had inherited.

'Doris's collection had been a lifetime labour of love for her, more precious than any treasure I knew of, sand she had chosen me as custodian. I was simply overwhelmed…
Then, among the last of Doris's boxed, I found her catalogue notes- The notes of all her stories, of the dresses and the women who wore them. As I pored over Doris's words- her wit, wonder and wisdom- the true value of what I had been bequeathed hit home. This wasn't a mere collection of beautiful things, it was a collection of lives. Women's lives. Tiny snapshots of our joys and disappointments, our entrances and exits, triumphant and tragic- and sometimes tragically hilarious.
And so, in the spirit of love and trust I- and the inimitable Doris Darnell- share some of those moments with you now.'
-Charlotte Smith.

Lavishly illustrated with 140 original paintings by Grant Cowan to illustrate each story, Dreaming of Dior offers both an intimate behind-the-scenes look into women's lives and superb showcase of fashion trends throughout the ages, along with the social mores of each era.

Ranging from young bride Isabella with her demure lavender taffeta gown in 1840s St Louis to the story behind a groovy military-style pink wool mini suit of the 1960s and a skimpy Ungaro sunflower dress from the early 1990s, Dreaming of Dior is the perfect gift for any woman who knows that a dress can hold a lifetime of memories.

Charlotte Smith is Curator of The Fashion Gallery at ESMOD Australia in Sydney, a branch of the internationally renowned design school l'Ecole Superieure des Art et techniques de la Mode, and now home to the vintage collection she inherited from godmother Doris Darnell. Charlotte lives in the Blue Mountains.

Dreaming of Dior
Harper Collins Publishers Australia
Author: Charlotte Smith
ISBN: 9780732290399
Price: $35.00