Transcript
Introduction
A sensation was caused by an unknown designer named Christian Dior. He was producing long, full dresses using prodigious quantities of precious materials and thumbing his nose at wartime austerity. His new collection electrified rich, fashion-conscious ladies in all nations. But who is Christian Dior and where did he come from? His father was a successful businessman who ran a fertilizer factory specializing in liquid manure, the foundation of the Dior Empire was s***, in the literal sense.
50 years from now, Dior would be the beginning of Bernard Arnault's LVMH Empire, which I talked about on episode 296, if you haven't listened to the episode already. It's one of my favorite episodes I've ever made. The profits of liquid manure allow the Dior family to maintain a house in Paris, and a young Christian Dior took full advantage of it. He would love to draw, love dressing up with the help of his enduring mother, and he enjoyed designing dresses for his sisters. He's a kid when he's doing this.