Watch the making of Dior’s Bar jacket, a generation-spanning icon since 1974

The Bar jacket — recognisable for its cinched waist, soft shoulders and basque silhouette accentuating the shape of the hips — instantly sealed Christian Dior’s success at the couturier’s very first show on 12 February 1947. Ever since, it’s become not only a house icon, but also a virtuosic symbol of Parisian elegance.

The iconic jacket, which forms Dior’s revolutionising ‘New Look’, has been continuously reinterpreted and modernised by Dior’s various Artistic Directors throughout the decades; whether it’s in John Galliano’s exuberant glamour or Raf Simons’ minimalism, the sensual lines and defined waist of Monsieur Dior’s original remain, and continue to transverse through time and fashion.

Under the creative vision of Maria Grazia Chiuri, the Bar jacket has once again been reinvented anew. It was reintroduced in the Fall/Winter 2019 ready-to-wear collection featuring more masculine lines, and in checked and denim effects, while the Fall/Winter 2019 haute couture show saw the house icon in a distinctive black granite tweed.

For the Cruise 2020 collection, the designer has collaborated with artists Mickalene Thomas and Grace Wales Bonner, bringing a mix of crochet and Caribbean embroidery techniques into silk and hand-woven raffia, along with a combination of vivid, warm shades.

As the house celebrates the 73rd birthday of the Bar jacket today, we would like to take a moment to honour the house’s ateliers, as it is only thanks to their technical prowess that made the recreation and reinvention of the Bar jacket possible.

Let us take you behind the scenes for a look at the making of the Bar jacket, and witness the excellent know-how that brings the emblematic curves to life.