When Dior does Christmas, it means business. The French house has partnered with Harrods on the largest luxury brand takeover of the retail behemoth, featuring no less than 44 creative window displays and a light installation that illuminates the store front with stars, roses and other seminal brand references made magical in the festive glow. If that’s the outer, which took a team of 200 over a year to build offsite, then the treats awaiting customers inside certainly live up to the hype.
“The name says it all: The Fabulous World of Dior,” Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, tells British Vogue of the brand presence on every Harrods floor, from the two pop-up boutiques, featuring a gifting conveyor belt of One Dior products encompassing all categories, from fashion to beauty, to the café serving up biscuits even more exquisite than the gingerbread window designs brightening up Brompton Road.
The iconic Harrods front is decked out to look like a Dior-ified version of a gingerbread house for Christmas.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
From 10 November to 3 January, customers will be able to see Dior references reinterpreted by artist Pietro Ruffo for the Cruise 2023 collection, as well as historic Dior looks, in the Harrods windows.
Photo: Adrian Dirand via Instagram
While fashion fans can truffle out custom gems – from Harrods-green Kim Jones suiting to Maria Grazia Chiuri’s signature Book Totes printed for the first time with the Rêve d’Infini motif – beauty lovers will need to carve out a substantial amount of time to explore the two new ephemeral spaces devoted to perfume, make-up and pampering. Among the Vogue team’s highlights? The fragrance workshop dedicated to La Collection Privée and the one-of-a-kind present ideas, from a mini trunk housing a Millefiori edition of the Miss Dior Eau de Parfum and a new J’adore bottle designed by India Mahdavi, to the single glow-up station-cum-travel trunk that only one lucky Harrods customer can buy.
Each detail is an Instagrammer’s delight.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
A team of 200 worked on the facade for over a year and installed it over a two-week period.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
“Evoking emotion and dreams has, after all, always been a defining aspect of the house,” explains Beccari of the showmanship at the heart of the project, including the Colorama display, which has previously only been used in exhibitions, such as La Galerie Dior in Paris. “Harrods is perhaps the most iconic and legendary retail location, not only in the UK, but globally, and our presence there means an incomparable level of visibility with an international impact.”
The Dior gift offering encompasses all categories, from fashion and beauty to interiors, and has some collector’s delights.
Photo: @harrods via Instagram
Christmas doesn’t come chicer than at Harrods this year.
Photo: @harrods via Instagram
Commercial potential aside, the collaboration is rooted in a deep respect between maison and department store. Monsieur Christian Dior was a keen admirer of British elegance, writing in his memoir, “There is no other country whose way of life pleases me more… I love its practices, its sense of tradition, its politeness, its architecture and even its cooking”. In 1953, six years after he had presented his New Look and shown his first collection in London at The Savoy, Dior took the first singular branded boutique in Harrods, where it has had a presence to this day.
The Dior X Harrods café.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
A sneak peek at the Kingdom of Dreams exhibition.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
This long-standing relationship is charted in an enchanting in-store exhibition, entitled Kingdom of Dreams and exploring the sweet tradition of gingerbread houses. Echoing landmark Dior locations – from Granville to La Colle Noire and 30 Montaigne – in micro proportions, the wildly ornate universe crafted entirely out of cookies reminds shoppers of the romantic journey of Dior so far. If watching the original Miss Dior dress come to life in biscuit form, or a fairy transforming a piece of candy into a Bar jacket doesn’t prompt you to make a move towards the Dior café we don’t know what will. Buy the compass rose confection – a precious symbol held dear by the couturier that’s also blown up on the storefront to guide Kensington shoppers on their own One Dior journey, which Beccari describes best as “something magical, festive, and unforgettable, a true ‘kingdom of dreams’.”
’Tis the season for Miss Dior, according to Harrods.
Photo: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
Visit The Fabulous World of Dior at Harrods from 10 November to 3 January, and book your slot for the ‘Kingdom of Dreams’ exhibition here: Thefabulousworldofdior.com/registration
Editor
Alice NewboldCredit
Lead image: Adrien Dirand via Instagram
