A rare, museum quality, Christian Dior (1905 to 1957), silk faille taffeta coat with Christian Dior, Paris, Automne-Hiver, 1954 label, numbered 45970. Constructed in deep raspberry silk, lined in silk to match the exterior, it is a voluminous, draped evening coat with three-quarter length sleeves and deep shawl collar.

Throughout the 1950s Christian Dior was the biggest and best-run haute couture house in Paris and his label accounted for half of Franceís haute couture exports. In the fall of 1954, Christian Dior showed the "H-Line" collection based on the silhouette of a young girl and an exploration of volume. This was an important departure form his earlier "New Look" and it was this collection that set the tone for the next decade of fashion and once again changed the way women viewed fashion and defined the silhouette.

The coat is well documented with the green version appearing in the September 1954 issue of Life Magazine with Christian Dior, and in editorials in the September 1954 issues of both Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Item # DD839