Having left the French Army in 1942, 36-year-old Christian Dior joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong where he and Pierre Balmain became the primary designers. Throughout the Second World War, Dior dressed the wives of the Nazi officers and French collaborators until in October 1946 he founded his own fashion house. His first collection was quickly dubbed the New Look by Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar because Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent wartime styles, influenced by the rations on fabric.
Dior died suddenly of a heart attack in 1957 aged 52 and creative control of the label quickly passed into the hands of his young protégé, 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent, who further cemented its place in the history books. Saint Laurent was called up for national service in 1960 and fellow Frenchman Marc Bohan took over and remained in the driving seat until Gianfranco Ferre was appointed to run the label in 1989. In 1997 British designer John Galliano was appointed as the creative director, a partnership which has proved highly successful and lucrative.