Christian DIOR, l'inspiration de la nature
Born in Granville, in the Manche region - the "Monaco of the North" - Christian Dior grew up in the family home overlooking the sea, purchases by his parents in 1906, a year after his birth. The villa Les Rhumbs, built in the Anglo-Norman style, was surrounded by a garden that would leave an everlasting mark on him, one he helped design alongside his mother, Madeleine. This closeness to nature, plants and flowers would later influence him as a couturier, inspiring the silhouette of the “flower-woman” inseparable from the New Look he created in 1947: “I designed flower-women, with soft shoulders, blossoming busts, waists as slender as vines, and skirts wide as corollas.”
Both a refuge and a source of inspiration, Christian Dior’s gardens are inseparable from his life and work. The floral and botanical repertoire became one of the House of Dior’s enduring signatures, and after the couturier’s death in 1957, his successors continued to weave nature into their creations.
Brigitte Richart – Chief heritage curator, graduate of the École du Louvre and CELSA (Graduate School in Information and Communication Studies, Sorbonne University, Paris IV), Brigitte Richart has devoted over thirty years to museums and cultural heritage, curating numerous exhibitions. Based in Granville since 2004, she has directed the town’s three municipal museums — all designated Musée de France — including the celebrated musée Christian Dior, located in the couturier’s childhood home.
Since 2023, she has dedicated herself exclusively to this museum, accompanying its expansion and international outreach under the stewardship of the association Présence de Christian Dior, which manages the institution.
She served as General Curator of the exhibition Christian Dior, jardins enchanteurs, presented in Granville in 2025.
