Dior Fonteyn's Favorite Designer

Photo Credit: Margot Fonteyn wears a silver-gray silk taffeta Christian Dior dress on her wedding day, February 1955 from Ballerina Fashion's Modern Muse Consultant Patricia Mears

Margot Fonteyn had great technical control in her dancing while embodying elegance and grace. She embraced the traditions of ballet, but she was also one for modern fashion. When Sadler's Wells went on a tour of the United States and Canada in 1949, the ballet company featured not just what was British ballet but also high fashion in London. The ISLFD, which stood for the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers. The ISLFD used their tour as a marketing tool. The company created clothes for the dancers and special garments created for Margot Fonteyn, Pamela May, Beryl Grey, and Moira Shearer.

These dancers performed performances on a hectic schedule and took part in photoshoots for American magazines and newspapers. Cecil Beaton even photographed Fonteyn for the magazine Vogue where she wore a black evening gown by designer Bianca Mosca.

While the ballet company wanted to keep their relationship with the British fashion designers with their dancers, Margot Fonteyn's heart was with the City of Lights. She had a great love for France after the war.

During the postwar years, Fonteyn would come to Paris and the South of France for training, dancing, and vacations. It was here where she discovered her favorite designer Christian Dior. Fonteyn was introduced to Dior by the French Dancer and choreographer Roland Petit after Dior debuted his collection in 1947.

"There's a marvellous new couturier who has just shown his first collection. It's a sensational success. He's called Christian Dior.' He took me to Dior, where they lent me a striking dress to wear that evening. Everyone complimented me on the gown, and I had never felt so elegant in my life."- Quote from Margot Fonteyn on how she was introduced to Dior.

Margot Fonteyn always chose when she was in Paris to buy her clothes at the House of Dior in Paris. Most of Fonteyn's wardrobe was designed by Dior, which reveals her loyalty and trust in the french designer.

"Maison Dior decided to take me under it's wing. and I bought one of the first season's outfits... I bought some ravishing dresses from Dior and of course ordered by wedding dress there." - Quote from Margot Fonteyn on Dior.

One of the Dior gowns Fonteyn wore on her Australian tour was inspired by her Black Swan costume. The gown was called Cygne Noir or Black Swan. This gown can be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England.

When Dior died, Fonteyn ventured into other French designers like Yves Saint Laurent, whose collection she bought at the end of the season.

Still, though, I don't think any designer could fill the place of Dior in Fonteyn's heart. Dior just understood Fonteyn's style, aesthetic, elegance, and grace. You could even say Fonteyn was Christian Dior's muse for some of his gowns, like the Black Swan gown.

In 1965 Margot Fonteyn was listed as the best-dressed woman in the world, following in the footsteps of Mathilde Kschessinska and Anna Pavlova, who were also influential ballerina fashion icons themselves and whose styles are still timeless this day. 

Fonteyn, like Kschessinska and Pavlova,  being a ballerina, knew how to use fashion to express what she wanted the audience to understand about her character she was playing. She used this same method she used on stage with the press, ambassadors—or greeting her fans by what she wore met the expectations of the event. She was an ambassador of fashion.

Fonteyn learned this method from the laws of theatre, which she applied the same principles she learned from being on stage for ballet that could be applied to her fashion choices and I feel Dior understood this about her.

"Theatre is, obviously, what I care about and ... I try to follow the laws of 'theatre' in the field of ballet. These laws are very clear in my mind, First, the audience is always right... Every performance carries a burden of responsibility, and the performer must strive to match the expectations of his public."- Quote from Margot Fonteyn on the law of theatre.