The enchanting world of Christian Dior’s gardens

‘The seasons determine the rhythm of nature; the new dresses must bloom just as naturally as the blossom on the apple tree.’

Christian Dior (1905-57) was an anthophile and a talented gardener — a passion ignited in childhood by watching his mother, Madeleine, in the family garden. The home, Les Rhumbs, was perched on a clifftop in Granville, the fashionable seaside resort on the Normandy coast.

After becoming a world famous fashion designer and perfumer, Dior frequently spoke about how Les Rhumbs, and his own, subsequent two gardens, provided him with both a spiritual haven and bountiful source of inspiration. This relationship is the theme of a compelling exhibition, ‘Dior: Enchanting Gardens’, at the Christian Dior Museum — which opened inside Les Rhumbs in 1997 — and of a book of the same name to which I contributed a chapter.

Madeleine surrounded and protected the exposed Les Rhumbs garden with Cyprus, black and Scots pines, and olive, oak and hornbeam trees. She also planted a bamboo grove. In the middle, she cultivated blousy borders, rose and vegetable gardens, and had a swimming pool installed. Her meticulously ordered designs were in stark contrast to the then English vogue for informal planting. Unfortunately, the home was sold in the early 1930s to the town council because the family’s fertiliser business, established by Dior’s great-grandfather, was failing. In 1938, the gardens opened to the public and, to this day, are still enjoyed by the local community and visitors, alike.

Less than a decade later, Dior secured the necessary financial backing to establish his own House and, from the outset, put florals front and centre, naming one half of his first collection, ‘Corolle’ (the term ‘corolla’ refers to the total number of petals on a flower). Dior’s tiny-waisted and dramatically full-skirted designs were invariably decorated with flowers and cut to floriate silhouettes. And in his own fashion memoir, the designer famously stated that his ideal clients were ‘flower-like women’.

Perfume was central to Dior’s overarching vision and that first collection — which went on to be known as the now seminal ‘New Look’ — was accompanied by the launch of Miss Dior. The perfume, which continues to fly off the shelves, is scented with honey and peppery notes of Provence roses, lily of the valley, peony and iris. Some 20km from Les Rhumbs, you’ll find the Rose de Granville Garden. More than 50,000 rose bushes grow on about 17 acres of land — their flowers destined for bottles of Dior perfume. It’s one of seven House gardens, located all around the world, and tilled to organic and sustainable agricultural principles.

The French couturier enjoyed immediate financial success and celebrated by purchasing an abandoned 18th century mill and farmyard in Milly-la-Forêt, in northern France. Moulin du Coudret was his weekend retreat where, echoing Madeleine, he fashioned a cottage garden full of flowers, vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants. He later recalled wanting it ‘to be like the peasants’ gardens which decorate the sides of the roads in my native Normandy.’ Dior always took note of wild, as well as cultivated, flowers and among the exhibition highlights are two dresses, one strewn with naturalistic, three-dimensional daisies and the second with charming buttercups — both named after the seed firm his mother used. In fact, The House of Dior was renowned for its silk flower embellishments, crafted in their Parisian atelier or ordered from specialist workshops. The rose was Christian Dior’s favourite flower and multiple collections were decorated with clusters or swags of them — or sometimes a single bloom — in shades of natural-looking white, yellow, pink and red. He also adored black, silk roses, but there are no true black flowers in Nature. Originally worn for mourning, by the 1930s they had acquired an edgy and elegant fashion allure.

In France, at the annual Fête du Muguet, sprigs and bunches of lily of the valley are gifted for good luck and happiness. Dior was highly superstitious; he cultivated the flower in his hothouse, wore it as a buttonhole and used it in each of his collections. In 1956, he released Diorissimo, a perfume designed to simulate lily-of-the-valley.

Dior purchased his final home, La Colle Noire, a dilapidated château with vast grounds, in 1950. It is located in Montauroux, close to Grasse where jasmine and roses are grown for the perfume industry. He hired the architect Andreï Svetchine to restore the building to its former splendour and in this, his most grand garden, he installed formal lawns with boxwood-bordered flower beds, and planted olive and almond trees, jasmine, and a bamboo grove on stone terraces — echoing Les Rhumbs. The estate was recently renovated by The House of Dior.

Since the designer’s sudden and untimely death in 1957, luminaries including Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano have headed up his eponymous House. Each one has paid tribute to Dior by featuring lily of the valley in their respective collections — to the point where the flower is now inextricably twinned with the brand. A year after Dior’s death, the House of Meilland, a garden roses production company, established in 1856, paid him the greatest compliment by naming a truly gorgeous, double-hybrid tea rose after him.

‘Dior: Enchanted Gardens’ is open until November 2; the book is published September 2 (Rizzoli, £35).