In the centre of the room is an unusual wedding dress, with layers of delicate white fabric embroidered with sprays of wild flowers.

It is not just an expensive piece of haute couture by fashion house Dior. It is also the wedding dress worn by Benedetta Ziffer, a guide at Kunstmuseum Den Haag – and worn also by her mother Margherita Mozzetti to marry in 1957.

Dior – a New Look, an exhibition opening at the modern art museum in The Hague on September 21, takes a different approach to a fashion show. Rather than aiming at a rarefied, wealthy audience, it takes a feminist approach and tries to appeal to all sorts of visitors.

There are dresses that were worn, for example, by Nicole Kidman and Natalie Portman, one creation owned by early film star Josephine Baker, as well as a negligée-style evening gown worn, braless, by Princess Diana – to press outrage at the time.

But the exhibition also compares the tale of the founding father Christian Dior, who put women in suits and free-flowing skirts, with current designer Maria Grazia Chiuri. As the first female creative director at the French fashion house, she hit the headlines with t-shirts saying “All of us should be feminists”, while also creating a more free and flowing silhouette.

“The main focus is those two designers,” said curator Madelief Hohé at a press view on Thursday.  “It so nice that you can see how a Christian Dior jacket is built like a structure, a building that gives the body a really nice shape. And Maria Grazia is doing the same in a way, but with more freedom.. so you can move in a different way, which suits our time very well. The comparison is really interesting, to realise how different it is, but at the same time connected with the same DNA.”

Margriet Schavemaker, new director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, said that the museum was inspired by its own collection of 60,000 fashion objects and the desire to appeal to a broad public. The exhibition has been created with traditional explanation but also concise “long story short” boards in every room, an accompanying podcast and an audio tour.

“We are very grateful to The Hague’s municipality in its role as sponsor and for its warm heart for art, especially at a time when this is not self evident, at least at a national level,” she added.

The new look

From two silk dresses at the opening – one by Dior, one by Chiuri – the exhibition explains the founding of the fashion house by a man who had wanted to be an architect. Instead, in 1947, he founded Dior and created a feminine look very different from the austere, military wear of the time.

His long, swirling skirts, narrow waist and rounded shoulders were dubbed by American fashion journalist Carmel Snow “the new look”, the show explains. They caught on quickly – even in the unshowy Netherlands, where excess material use was frowned upon.

Dior died suddenly of a heart attack 10 years later but his shoes were filled by a series of stellar designers including Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano and, since 2016, Chiuri.

With loans from the fashion house itself, museums and private collectors, the exhibition depicts typical Dior motifs: elegant flowers, classical draping, an eye for celebrity and more affordable diffusion line products from handbags to perfume. It tells the story of various collectors, highlighting the craft involved and the intricate designs.

Part of the fun of the exhibition – at the press viewing at least – was in posing with the models. Jen Blok Maasdam, an Instagram influencer at Jenslookingglass, said that in her view, Dior’s fashion was more than fashion.

“He saw women as heroes,” she said, posing for pictures in front of an artistically-draped, ivory evening gown. “But I am wearing H&M new collection, autumn-winter 2024.”