DIOR BY SARAH MOON

Sans atout, Maria Grazia Chiuri for Christian Dior, Coat dress, Autumn/Winter 2017 © Sarah Moon

 

Sarah Moon’s work is known internationally for its unique beauty and elusive narrative and has enduring appeal thanks to its own alluring visual language. Regarded as one of France’s best fashion photographers working today, to find a new book by the artist, now in her early 80s, is something really special.

Published by Delpire & Co, the publishing house founded by Moon’s late partner Robert Delpire, Dior by Sarah Moon is an exquisite three-volume publication following Moon’s visual explorations into three distinct phases of the legendary fashion house.

With a delicate balance of celebrated and new work, images are either drawn from Moon’s previous editorial work for Dior’s in-house magazine, or shot exclusively for the book at the Fondation Le Corbusier or Dior archives in 2021.

The first volume contains 33 black & white photographs of Spanish model Andrea Gutiérrez Arcas wearing Christian Dior’s original pieces designed from 1947 to 1957. The second book delves into Moon’s distinctive colour work, presenting 43 images putting various garments designed by artistic directors of Dior from 1958 to 2015, including Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano and Raf Simons. The 38 photographs in the third and closing volume mark the arrival of the current artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri. Speaking about the collaboration, the Italian designer says: ‘Sarah Moon’s signature resides in her capacity to give form to unconscious movements and retrospective intuition, and in her aptitude to image indescribable ambiences. For all these reasons, her vision was perfect for transcribing the story told by my creative process for the Dior collections: that of a woman anchored in her epoch, drawing her strength by listening to her emotions.’

In an extraordinarily rich collection that defies categorization, these photographs show us what Moon does best. Each image holds the unmistakable Moon stamp and is imbued with an undefinable quality that goes far beyond fashion and editorial photography into the world of fine art. The sequencing allows the reader to move through the photographer’s work with ease, inviting them to decipher Moon’s visual codes to be transported to a place beyond reality where the evanescence of beauty, the uncertain and the passage of time dominate.

 

John Galliano for Christian Dior Suit, Spring/Summer 1999 © Sarah Moon

 

Released in late November, the book will available for overseas audiences from January 2023 and can be pre-ordered now.

 

Dior by Sarah Moon
Sarah Moon
Texts by Maria Grazia Chiuri, Sarah Moon and Olivier Saillard
Delpire & Co
3 volumes in a boxed set, 26 x 26 cm, €120

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