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Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams

OMA and Shohei Shigematsu

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“DIOR AND JAPAN”—an organic path designed for discovery immerses visitors in an extruded landscape constructed of washi paper. The traditional material molded onto contemporary form fabricate a familiar yet enigmatic environment. - Daici Ano, Courtesy Dior
“DIOR AND JAPAN”—an organic path designed for discovery immerses visitors in an extruded landscape constructed of washi paper. The traditional material molded onto contemporary form fabricate a familiar yet enigmatic environment. - Daici Ano, Courtesy Dior
“THE NEW LOOK” presents the Bar Silhouette invented by Christian Dior and its iterations and interpretations by the House of Dior’s various creative directors over time. - Daici Ano, Courtesy Dior
“DIOR AND JAPAN”—an organic path designed for discovery immerses visitors in an extruded landscape constructed of washi paper. The traditional material molded onto contemporary form fabricate a familiar yet enigmatic environment. - Daici Ano, Courtesy Dior

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Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Exhibition
8.20
7.76
8.48
6.03
7.62
Luca Macri
Luca Macri Partner at Lamatilde
8.5
8
9
6.5
8
David Kulen
David Kulen Creative Director at Powerplant
8
7
8
3
6.5
Ludmila Machado
Ludmila Machado Founder at Aurora Design
7.8
7.6
8.2
6
7.4
Weiping Lin
Weiping Lin Founder and Design Director at Lin Wei Ping Design Consulting
7.5
7
8
6.5
7.25
Filip Milovanovic
Filip Milovanovic Design Director at Yabu Pushelberg
This project connects japanese hist...
7.5
7
8
5.5
7
Michelle Smith
Michelle Smith Associate Designer at M Moser Associates
Really interesting concept and vari...
9
8
9
5
7.75
Mark Timo
Mark Timo Founder at De Interieur Club
9
9
9
5
8
Terry Xu
Terry Xu Chief Designer at Masanori Design Studio
8.5
7
8
5
7.13
Drew Gilbert
Drew Gilbert Design Manager at OBMI
7.7
7.78
8.18
6.66
7.58
Liyu Xue
Liyu Xue Founder and Creative Director at Staay
8
8
8
7
7.75
Apoorva Shroff
Apoorva Shroff Founder at lyth Design
9
9
9
8
8.75
Jai Kumaran
Jai Kumaran Partner at West of West
OMA and Shohei Shigematsu's design...
9.5
8.5
9
6
8.25
Marcel Häusler
Marcel Häusler Creative Director at Karl Anders
8
7.5
8
5
7.13
Alessandro Ranaldi
Alessandro Ranaldi Head of Workplace Consultancy at Foster and Partners
7.5
8
8.5
6
7.5
Juan Alberto Andrade
Juan Alberto Andrade Founder at Juan Alberto Andrade
7.7
8.27
8.59
8.88
8.36
Yuan Jiang
Yuan Jiang Cofounder at Soda
8
6
9
6
7.25
Isabelle Kievenheim
Isabelle Kievenheim Head of Store Development at & Other Stories H&M Group
8
8
8
4
7
Llisa Demetrios
Llisa Demetrios Chief Curator at The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
9
8
9
6
8
Yuanman Huang
Yuanman Huang Cofounder and Creative Designer at GS Design
7.64
7.75
8.68
8.47
8.14
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
GRAND JURY VOTES
Shortlisted - Exhibition of the Year
8.59
7.90
8.76
6.03
7.82
Samar Younes
Samar Younes Founder and Chief Imagination Officer at Samaritual
Christian Dior's Exhibits are a br...
8.97
8.1
9.08
6.03
8.05
Richard Kylberg
Richard Kylberg CEO and Head of Customer Success at Blink the Design Agency
This exhibition brilliantly marries...
9
8
9
6.04
8.01
Marianne Stroyeva
Marianne Stroyeva Senior Retail Design Manager at adidas
8.2
7.76
8.48
6.03
7.62
Nils Wiberg
Nils Wiberg Interaction Designer at Gagarin
8.2
7.76
8.48
6.03
7.62
Client
Dior
Floor area
2000 ㎡
Completion
2022
Social Media
Instagram
Kiri-e Artist
Photographer
Production
Construction
Construction
Transportation and Installation
Transportation and Installation
Projections
Lighting and Sound Design

The House of Dior is built upon Christian Dior’s spirit of reinvention and global reach in fashion, a legacy that persists and evolves with successive individual creative directors. In Japan, a country of technological innovation but also a rich, traditional culture, the exhibition design for Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams reflects a diverse multiplicity within historic and contemporary contexts. The scenography reimagines the gallery beyond its limits to provide an immersive and varied experience with rooms transitioning between light and dark, intimate and grand, organic and orthogonal. Natural materials are deployed throughout the exhibition, such as papers and fabrics that reflect Dior’s commitment to creative circularity and high-quality textile recycling.

Across two floors of the MOT, 22 curatorial themes are deployed in specific, immersive environments. These designs utilize different techniques and materials referential to elements shared between Japanese tradition and culture and Dior history and contemporary collections. Visual and spatial qualities of known elements and construction techniques like Shoji screens and Nebuta floats are manipulated and exaggerated into contemporary forms. Familiar and enigmatic, the constructed landscapes create a series of distinct experiences .

In one of the key themes of the exhibition, “Dior and Japan”, a winding path and pockets for display along it, akin to stations of the Japanese Tea Garden, is expanded vertically and horizontally. A wooden structure is wrapped in backlit Tenjiku fabric and Awagami washi paper, creating a layered, luminous backdrop for the garments and artifacts. The three-dimensional landscape is projected onto with various patterns and motifs to further activate the space.

“The Dior Legacy” is a unified framework of a series of spaces dedicated to the House of Dior’s seven creative directors. Enlarged fabric panels are deployed as enfilade dividers that draw from Sudare hanging panels commonly used in Japanese interiors.

The “floor” of the museum atrium is lifted and sloped to bisect the lofted space diagonally, creating a double-sided display. The top becomes a single, grand gesture for “The Dior Ball”, the grandest set of the exhibition, where mannequins in gowns climb up as spectators view their “procession” from below or above from a bridge. A more intimate environment is inserted underneath for “Dior around the World.” Visitors step into a domed room comprised of layers of concentric fabric surfaces, forming a scenographic hemisphere with animated projections. The projections in this theme reflect Dior’s global presence and commitment to sustainability, reflecting worldwide movement and travel patterns.

Together with nine other rooms, this sequence of themes comprise a diverse exhibition scenography. Visitors are taken through a journey of discovery of Dior, revealing the multifaceted relationship between the House and Japan against contemporary juxtapositions.