Villa Rumba is the Dior family home in Granville on a high cliff, open to all winds and immersed in greenery. The fashion designer spent his childhood here - the happiest and most serene time. With the outbreak of the First World War, the family moved to Paris, then a crisis broke out, the father went bankrupt. The house became the property of the city.
The Dior family in the gardens of their villa, 1912
Here, in his lost paradise, Dior will return again and again - in his memories, in new homes and in collections. He will combine the colors of Granville - pink and gray, the forms are strict and laconic, he will try to catch the smells of lily of the valley and rose and feel the native atmosphere. This endless internal dialogue that Dior had with his childhood is the subject of the exhibition "Dior and Granville: Return to the Roots", timed to coincide with two dates at once: the 70th anniversary of the House of Dior and the 20th anniversary of the Dior Museum in Granville.
Christian Dior Haute Couture dress, 1953 © Collection Dior Heritage, Paris © Laziz Hamani
Curator Florence Müller leads the viewer through the rooms, offering to look at the house through the eyes of Dior himself. His passion for Japanese belts and tunics, reminiscent of the qipao dresses worn by women in Shanghai in the 1920s, comes from his childhood. The entrance hall and the central staircase were lined with bamboo and decorated with panels reproducing the engravings of Utamaro and Hokusai - Dior called them his "Sistine Chapel".
1 of 6 Dior dress, 1962 © Christian Dior Museum collection, Granville © Laziz Hamani Christian Dior Haute Couture dress, 1958 © Collection Christian Dior Museum Granville © Laziz Hamani Christian Dior Haute Couture, 2007 © COLLECTION DIOR HERITAGE, PARIS © LAZIZ HAMANI Christian Dior Haute Couture, 2007 © Collection Dior Heritage, Paris © Laziz Hamani Christian Dior Haute Couture dress, 1958 © Collection Christian Dior Museum Granville © Laziz Hamani
He will transfer the family spirit of the Rumba living room with a large fireplace and furnished in the best traditions of the 18th century to his new home on Avenue Montaigne. In the office of Maurice Dior's father, everything is in place - a negro mask, an engraving with mustachioed musketeers and a mysterious telephone - everything that instilled sacred horror in his son, but at the same time spurred him: Christian strove to be a successful entrepreneur, like his father. Dior inherited his fine artistic taste from his mother who adored music and gardens. Her outfits, restraint and thin silhouette, he will remember more than once in his memoirs. In his nursery - fairy tales by Charles Perrault and "Unusual Journeys" by Jules Verne. Dior knew from an early age that dreams come true and it is not harmful to dream.>
