"In 1946, France was in the doldrums. The war, the humiliation of German occupation and the rationing of all essential products had turned the City of Light into a gray and sad reflection of its former self. It was at this darkest of moments that Christian Dior, then a young designer for Robert Piguet and Lucien Lelong, met Marcel Boussac, France's textile king and the country's most powerful industrialist.

Boussac offered to set up Dior in business, a lease came due on 30 Avenue Montaigne - still the Dior headquarters - and the young designer consulted his mystic. She fell into a trance and cried out "It will be extraordinary. Your house will revolutionize fashion".".

"And so it did when, in 1947, Christian Dior presented his first couture collection. Women were finally given back their femininity, narrow waists, high and prominent busts, long skirts and fabulous evening dresses made up of seemingly endless meters of luxurious cloth, often beaded or embroidered by the great master Lesage.

Carmel Snow, the American fashion doyenne, proclaimed, "Christian, it's a completely new look", and under this banner the world's fashion press heralded the return of haute couture." "This book is based mostly on photographs in the Dior archives, and is the detailed history of the first decade of the great house's activity when Christian Dior personally supervised every detail of his enterprise, created a team of devoted collaborators, and a large studio of adoring seamstresses."--BOOK JACKET.