{"id":66828,"date":"2026-08-18T21:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/66828\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:32:15","slug":"the-real-reason-behind-the-christian-dior-and-coco-chanel-rift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/66828\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Reason Behind the Christian Dior and Coco Chanel Rift"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated3 min read<\/p>\n

No one did rivalry\u2014or put-downs\u2014quite like Gabrielle \u201cCoco\u201d Chanel<\/a>. When referring to her sartorial opponent Elsa Schiaparelli, who had no formal training in sewing, she scathingly called her \u201cthat Italian artist who makes clothes.\u201d When designer Paul Poiret observed Chanel wearing black and archly asked for whom she was mourning, she quipped<\/a>, \u201cFor you, monsieur.\u201d But nobody felt the whip of Chanel\u2019s tongue more mercilessly than Christian Dior<\/a>, who first strutted onto the Parisian scene in 1947 and took the fashion world by storm. Their clash of sensibilities\u2014Chanel\u2019s pared-back modernity versus Dior\u2019s unapologetic romanticism\u2014became one of fashion history\u2019s most enduring rivalries. But what really happened between these two icons? Here\u2019s what we know.<\/p>\n

\"christianFred Ramage\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fashion couturier Christian Dior, designer of the \u201cnew look\u201d and the \u201cA-line,\u201d with six of his models after a fashion parade at the Savoy Hotel, London.<\/p>\n

When did the rivalry between Coco Chanel and Christian Dior begin? <\/p>\n

Dior<\/a> (played in the series by Ben Mendelsohn) presented his first collection in February 1947 at 30 Avenue Montaigne<\/a> in Paris. It featured a lineup of looks that were a masterclass in structured silhouettes\u2014cinched waists, padded hips, and layer upon layer of unashamedly decadent tulle, taffeta, and silk organza. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a revolution,\u201d remarked Carmel Snow, the former editor in chief of the American edition of Harper\u2019s Bazaar, at the time, dubbing this revolutionary silhouette \u201cthe new look.\u201d Dior exploded on the fashion scene and transformed the wardrobe of the contemporary woman almost overnight, leading to a rejection of the war years\u2019 practicality in women\u2019s tailoring.<\/p>\n

Chanel (Juliette Binoche), as one might suspect, had opinions. \u201cLook how ridiculous these women are,\u201d Chanel\u2014who was 22 years Dior\u2019s senior\u2014famously declared. \u201c[They\u2019re] wearing clothes by a man who doesn\u2019t know women, never had one, and dreams of being one.\u201d Thus began a two-decade-long tiff between what would become two of the most esteemed fashion houses in the world.<\/p>\n

\"fashionApic\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fashion designer Coco Chanel in the early \u201950s.<\/p>\n

What did Coco Chanel and Christian Dior disagree about?<\/p>\n

Chanel opened her first independent shop on Rue Cambon in Paris in 1910 at the age of 27. What she was doing felt revolutionary in its own right. Aimed to liberate women by emphasizing functionalism and versatility, Chanel broke with typical haute-couture styles by placing an emphasis on the functionality of sportswear and menswear, including service and military uniforms. Her skirts had no waistbands, her boxy tweed jackets had two to four outside pockets, and braided cuffs complemented military-like buttons. Her clothes were pragmatic, adaptable, masculine, and designed with realistic lifestyle applications that fostered self-reliance. Dior\u2019s debut in 1947 (by that time, Chanel was a powerhouse fashion brand with 310 boutiques worldwide) could not have been more different.<\/p>\n

\"glamourKeystone\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Barbara Goalen models a silk evening dress from Dior\u2019s 1947 debut.<\/p>\n

In a post\u2013World War II world, Dior met a pent-up desire for opulence in high fashion with an exquisitely glamorous bounty of billowing tulle skirts, elongated silk gowns, and tiny wasp waists inspired by Dior\u2019s love of the Belle Epoque. Some styles, like the famed Junon dress<\/a> were reminiscent of the feathers of a peacock, frosted with iridescent beading and embroidery. Others, like the ultrafeminine Eug\u00e9nie gown<\/a> were composed of cascading layers of limitless tulle yardage that mimicked the blooming effect of a flower. They weren\u2019t necessarily the most comfortable clothes to wear\u2014some of his evening dresses weighed as much as 60 pounds\u2014but their ability to bring fantasy to a modern world gave Dior a dominant voice in the world of fashion.<\/p>\n

Chanel was not afraid to express her disapproval. She accused Dior of dragging women back to the 19th-century ideals of femininity\u2014upholding notions that women were objects to be admired by men. \u201cDior doesn\u2019t dress women. He upholsters them,\u201d she was known to have said, adding that a woman sitting down in a Dior dress looked like \u201can old armchair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dior politely refrained from publicly voicing his thoughts on Chanel. In his memoir, however, he generously wrote that Chanel\u2019s \u201cpersonality as well as her taste had style and elegant authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Julia Cancilla is the social media & news editor at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s socials and covers design, pop culture, and emerging trends. She also authors the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. Her work has appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Rachel Silva is a freelance writer and editor covering design, architecture, and culture. She previously served as an editor at ELLE Decor, and her work has appeared in Harper\u2019s Bazaar, TIME, and Veranda, among others. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, she is based in New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3 min read No one did rivalry\u2014or put-downs\u2014quite like Gabrielle \u201cCoco\u201d Chanel. When referring to her sartorial opponent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12728],"tags":[2793,41432,41431,4955,41433],"class_list":["post-66828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-dior","tag-christian-dior","tag-coco-chanel-christian-dior-rivalry","tag-dior-chanel-rivalry-history","tag-lvmh","tag-the-new-look"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}