DIOR TIMEPIECES

And what if Dior were recounting a tale about time? No doubt the rhythm would be precise. But would it be perpetual? Certainly, it would have the regularity of the seasons and the shows, that lengthy span of time pacing the creations. But within the cycle, there is so much speeding up and slowing down! So many pauses, so many moments in suspension! Dior time is synonymous with Dior’s times. Time for the fast and frenetic final preparations for the collections; urgently counting down the minutes. But also time for craftsmanship, slow and conscientious, the hours spent on attention to detail and knowhow, on embroidery or a jewel setting, on topstitching precious leather or the particular distillation of the essence of a rare flower… Time which takes its time, time decided by the hand. And yet, a hand so precise, so deft that time seems obliged to accelerate as if to keep up the pace. In the ateliers, the hands of the seamstresses are faster than the hands on their watches. The regularity and precision of watchmakers are equal to those of the movements that they make. And then, there is yet another time, no longer on a human scale and impossible to represent. This is the time pertaining to a gemstone. The youngest diamonds are nearly one billion years old. Their elders more than four times that. Together they set the House’s timekeepers and jewels. Dior always waltzes in step, not once, not twice but three times: time for the material, time for the hand and time for the spirit. They are not on the same scale but follow the same rhythm: the rhythm of creation. Dior watchmaking was born from these three times. Watchmaking on account of its high precision mechanisms, its Swiss ateliers and transalpine rigour. And Dior on account of its creativity, heritage and referents, its Parisian folly and impacting aesthetics, its sense of detail and notion of lining, its colours and monochromes: it is diorissima from the tips of its hands to the depths of its inspirations.