Natalia Vodianova by Estelle Hanania in 'New Look' Elegance for Vogue China August 2020

Natalia Vodianova by Estelle Hanania in 'New Look' Elegance for Vogue China August 2020

Supermodel Natalia Vodianova fronts a Dior’s 1947 advertorial dedicated to ‘The New Look’. The pre-COVID shoot places Natalia as one of three models lensed by Estelle Hanania with styling by Daniela Paudice, in the August 2020 issue of Vogue China.

Christian Dior’s debut collection in 1947 had a dramatic impact on post-war fashion with dramatically structured silhouettes that while perhaps pleasant to the eye, involved unnatural distortions of the body. The post WWII voluminous skirts, padded hips and tiny waists appealed to fashions of the 19th century, now retrofitted to 1947.

After years of world-war induced austerity, millions of women adored Dior’s vision of femininity. Because of his untimely death in 1957 at age 52, Christian Dior wasn’t able to fully develop his enraptured vision of women. Remember: “After women, flowers are the most lovely things God has given the world.”

Many historians and women’s rights activists see a bit of a plot in this vision of extreme femininity, poise and disciplined elegance. Not only did Dior’s New Look represent a serious national and international effort to get WWII cultural Rosie the Riveter women out of the work force — where she was quite happy being useful and not a mere ornament of beauty.

Colonial history upheavals were also afoot across the British and French empires.

Britain created the Partition of India in 1947, dividing British India into two independent dominion states, the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, ending the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-1948.