Chanel, Dior among French couture collection acquired by National Gallery of Victoria
One of the world's most sought after French haute couture collections featuring works by Christian Dior and a little black dress by Coco Chanel is now in the hands of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
The collection, which includes 130 pieces spanning from the 1800s to 2003, was bought from former Givenchy couturier Dominique Sirop for $1.4 million.
Rare workbooks and photography by Yves Saint Laurent and Madame Gres are also part of the collection, along with designs by Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin, Charles Frederick Worth and Jean Patou.
"[It's] the most incredibly exciting and significant acquisition of French couture," NGV senior curator Katie Somerville said.
"The core part of the collection sits very much in the first part of the 20th century with the likes of Chanel, Dior, Paquin, Patou - it's the ultimate roll-call of the most influential fashion designers."
Ms Somerville said one of the key elements that made the designers in the collection so significant was the creation of an "iconic silhouette" that shifted what was deemed fashionable at the time.
"That can mean someone like Poiret, who created beautiful dress-pants for women, so this almost oriental, quite modern approach to dressing women," she said.
"Or someone like Christian Dior, the first collection he presented in the spring of 1947, of which we have an example of in this collection, which was a response to the post-war period and introduced a very feminine, very sculptured silhouette.
"And then someone like Gabrielle Chanel, going back to the earliest piece we have in this archive, from 1918, when she was right at the start of her career.
"She was introducing one of the key silhouettes that impacted on the 1920s, in terms of that new concept of the modern woman, and the little black dress.
"It's the ultimate icon for most women's wardrobe now."
NGV Sirop collection to be exhibited in 2018
Mr Sirop acquired the first piece when he was 14 years old: a 1945 Paquin black wool dress with money borrowed from his grandmother.
He then collected the majority of the works from auction houses and specialist dealers in the United States, France and London.
"He, over a number of decades, had amassed an extraordinary collection of and was looking to find the right home for it, so he approached us to gauge our interest, and of course we were very interested," Ms Somerville said.
She said NGV hoped to hold the first public exhibition of the collection in 2018.