Paris 1947
At 30 Avenue Montaigne, Christian Dior unveiled his New Look to a shocked but enraptured press, and virtually overnight, fashion changed. His vision for women was a mix of retrospect and romance-haughty, high-class femininity, tight tailoring, wasp waists, and huge, voluminous skirts using an indulgent, abundant amount of fabric which mocked wartime sobriety; skirts so fabulously full they literally brushed against the audience’s cheeks. Dior perfume was sprayed liberally about the room adding to the heady hothouse atmosphere. And in the front row-fashion illustrator Rene Gruau, there to capture the Dior’s glamour and grace

New York 1947
String along a Coney Island beach, Battie Page’s chance encounter with a pin-up photographer led to her becoming the world’s most iconic centerfold. Posing provocatively across the scurrilous pages of peekaboo, Wink and Beauty Parade, her trademark black fringe, red lips and killer heels, mapped out a new sexual geography for young Americans. This underground erotic world cast Bettie centre decadent image of post-war femininity-Miss America meets the Marquis de Sade.

London 2009
Le Baiser* - The new collection from Sassoon combines the elegance of Dior haute couture with the fetish fantasy of Bettie Page as the Sassoon house code of pure geometry and attention to detail is mixed with natural yet controlled and waves that undulate softly around the head. Intricate internal layered panels are offset with bold curvaceous fringes, colours are in pique, where interlocking repeated patterns of triangles and diamonds are infused with the couture shades of powder blue and periwinkle; soft peach and oyster; white gardenia and sea grey, fuschia and persimmon. International Creative Director Mark Hayes says, ‘This season, groomed and polished couture is transfused with energy, jaded sophistication overturned by a modern youthful verve.’ *Baiser: French noun {beze} which means kiss