Customer Reviews

Dior in Vogue

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2 star:		(1)
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I adore vintage clothing. I collect it, wear it, and recently co-authored a book about it. So, as you'd imagine, I'm always interested in books about my favorite subject. Dior in Vogue, by Brigid Keenan, reminded me why I love these beautiful old dresses so much. When the book arrived in the mail, this Florida girl sat in her hot car (small, black) and spent the next twenty minutes gazing at pictures of Msr.Dior's exquisite creations, the majority of which--in this book, anyway--were coats and evening dresses (small, black); as I turned the pages, I longed to be walking in mid-century New York or Paris, feeling the chill wind of autumn swishing my fabulous New Look skirts. Politically incorrect smoke would curl upward from my ebony cigarette holder.

The photography is plentiful and inspiring, and the history of the great House of Dior is compelling reading for any fashionphile, especially if she loves the styles of the past as much as I do. What a wonderful book.

Proceed with caution when reading reviews because everyone's different (duh) and we all have different standards. I should heed my own warning but I'll take this as a lesson. I bought this book based on my love for Dior but also on the strength of the reviews as well. I was very disappointed when I got the book. Not realizing, although a reviewer did state that the pictures are all in black and white, how dull and uninspiring a book full of old grainy black and whites can be. Mind you these aren't high quality, high def, beautiful, pristine black and whites, like we've become accustomed from today's high fashion photography. They're old, grainy photos from the 40/50's. You can't see much detail in many of the pictures. A lot of them look like photo copies. They look like photo copies of old magazines. Which I guess is what the book is...Dior in Vogue. I should have known better but I wasn't really thinking. I was excited because it was Dior and because two people said it was a great book. My fault for expecting more.

It is a good reference book if you're a Dior nut and collect his books. There are tons of pictures, but page after page of these grainy b&w was just dreary for me. And I suppose that's because I have the other books which show his creations as they should be shown, in full exuberant color. The book Dior (Farid Chenoune) and Christian Dior (Richard Martin) are the must have books. If you have to choose between books, you buy those first hands down. Those books are beautiful. The presentation of the dresses are in museum quality, so the pages are large and thick and colorful. The dresses are on mannequins, they're are closeups of the details and the information regarding Dior and his life is well written. For me, having these books is the closest I'll ever get to seeing the dresses in person. The pictures are sharp, and colorful, the exact opposite of the pics in Dior in Vogue.

I would recommend this book to someone who collects everything Dior because there are so many pictures and they go from year to year from 1947-1957 if I remember correctly. Some of the dresses were ones I had not seen so that was exciting but overall those couldn't make up for what I felt was lacking. So take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm just one person, with my own standards which aren't any better or worse than anyone elses. I just wanted to offer another view

Brigid Keenan has assembled a superlative collection of (mostly) black and white photographs in (mostly) full-page format covering the entire 1947-1957 history of Christian Dior's designs, as seen in the pages of the leading U.S. fashion magazine, Vogue. The dust jacket and cover of the book are done up in Dior's famous checkered pattern. Keenan discusses Dior's collections year by year and season by season (in those days, fashion was divided by spring and autumn collections), and includes a substantial biographical essay on the designer himself. High quality in presentation, organization and selection of material. Recommended as a key reference work on Dior and New Look fashion.

I love vintage fashion, vintage pictures and that special look of the old school mannequins, so this book is strongly suited for my taste; of course Dior (along with Balenciaga and a small bunch of other couturiers, as for that period of time) is the most emblematic designer then.
This book is really enjoyable from my point.

Ahora para los colegas: una buena recopilación de fotos vintage, de calidad más o menos (más o menos regularen cuanto a la impresión), modelos, las Bettina,Wenda,etc, que eran las que se estilaban por aquel entonces, cinturas de avispa y tal, es curioso lo que aquellos fotógrafos podían hacer con equipos infinitamente más primitivos que los de ahora; hay "charme" por un tubo en este libro; pero es sólo para los más más fikis de este tipo de libros.
Live long and prosper!