Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks Fifth Avenue Lights Up NYC

Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks celebrates the holiday season, marking the first time the retailer has collaborated exclusively with a luxury fashion house for its annual holiday initiative. Dior has transformed the 10-story facade of Saks’ New York flagship with a reimagined holiday window display and light show experience, in-store installations, and a Dior pop-up on saks.com.

Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks Becomes a Showstopping Reality on Fifth Avenue

The extensive takeover, the biggest in Saks’ history, took 100 artisans, 10 months in planning and involved designing and manufacturing objects in Italy for the Saks building and flying them to New York to install. The 360-degree campaign launched Monday with an exclusive World of Dior digital pop-up on Saks.com, unveiling the holiday windows and the 10-story-tall theatrical light show at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in New York. The windows and digital pop-up will stay up through Jan. 5.

“The traditional holiday celebration at Saks, inaugurated by its marvellous Light Show on the iconic Fifth Avenue, is one of the most keenly awaited, spectacular and enchanting in the world,” said Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of Dior. “I am particularly proud that Dior, our ‘kingdom of dreams’, the incarnation of excellence and elegance, can participate in the magnificent event this year, sublimating it with its exceptional savoir-faire and the virtuoso inventiveness of our teams.

The installation is punctuated with Dior codes such as the star, the clover and the zodiac signs, evoking founding couturier Christian Dior’s legacy, superstitious nature, and lucky charms. It draws inspiration from the Dior Cruise 2024 collection.

By day, the facade stands as a sculptural work of art, with detailed watercolour effects and three-dimensional metallic elements applied by artisans worldwide. By night, the facade is illuminated by a light show experience inspired by the beauty of creation, nature and the magical moments of winter. The light show features nearly 300,000 LED lights and a medley of songs. For the 14th consecutive year, Saks’ holiday windows and light show are being presented by Mastercard.

Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks Fifth Avenue

“This celebration is around Christmas, the unveiling of the Christmas windows around Rockefeller Center, making a big gift to the city and to the New York citizens. It’s for Saks, it’s for New York, and it’s for the U.S. We hope it will have a reach that is beyond the city and have some recognition for all of our clients across the U.S.,” said Charles Delapalme, managing director of Christian Dior Couture.

The unveiling event Monday night — which closed down Fifth Avenue outside the flagship — highlighted introductions by Marc Metrick, chief executive officer of Saks, Delphine Arnault, Academy Award-winning actress, and Dior ambassador Jennifer Lawrence. It also featured a performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company in the middle of Fifth Avenue, with dancers dressed in costumes designed by the creative director of Dior womenswear, Maria Grazia Chiuri, with headpieces by Stephen Jones and makeup by Dior Makeup.

Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks Fifth Avenue Lights Up NYC

The Dior pop-up features various Dior collections, including women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, shoes, leather goods, accessories, Dior Maison, Baby Dior and La Collection Privée Christian Dior.

Dior chose Saks because it knew that the unveiling of the Christmas windows was significant for New York City, Delapalme said. “We wanted to make history and do something that was never done before,” he said, joking that Metrick told him that the process has been so complicated and exhausting that he’d never do it again.

 When you think about the integration and the total immersion of the Dior brand into the Saks ecosystem… Remember, they’re a luxury pure play store. 

“They [Americans] love Dior as a brand because they have a great sense of fashion, and Dior is a very fashionable brand and a very high-end brand as well.” He said both Chiuri and Kim Jones, Dior’s men’s artistic director, are loved by Americans. “Both of them do fashion that is very high quality but is also very friendly to wear daily. They don’t do fashion for museums; they do fashion that pleases women and is pleasing men. Their style is very friendly with what American customers are looking for.”

This year, Saks’ holiday windows tell a story of Monsieur Dior’s dream journey from Paris to Saks’ hometown of New York City, featuring scenes and iconic landmarks from both cities, along with elements inspired by Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks theme. Parisian landmarks featured in the windows include the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Jardins du Luxembourg and Dior’s historical flagship at 30 Avenue Montaigne.

Once Mr Dior arrives in New York, window projections and animations show him zipping along the Hudson River in a boat shaped like a Dior shoe and gliding across the famous Rockefeller Ice Rink in a sledge shaped like a Miss Dior perfume bottle. The Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship are among the New York icons in the windows.

One display features intricate miniature trunks showcasing special moments in Dior’s history, including the luxury house’s 1972 fashion show at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and the Christian Dior exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1996. The final window scenes depict oversized Dior lipsticks rushing to Times Square for New Year’s Eve and Mr Dior’s capping off his trip by ringing in the New Year.

The windows are adorned with snow globes, microworlds, carousels and cuckoo clocks. The clock on the store’s exterior features the zodiac and a celestial theme with the sun, moon, stars and butterflies, which is a crucial influence for Christian Dior and Chiuri. Pietro Ruffo collaborated with Chiuri to create the butterfly motif patterns across the Cruise 2024 collection and on the facade and design elements. All of the categories are featured in the windows.

In addition to the facade, all 24 windows (five of which are beautiful) will be specially designed Dior spaces inside the store in handbags, ready-to-wear, and men’s redecorated around a specific theme. There is a carousel around the perfumes and all the beauty products in beauty. In women’s ready-to-wear on the third floor, the team built a structure, added a new carpet and covered the walls with beautiful gold butterflies.

On the store’s main floor is a carousel installation displaying one-of-a-kind Christian Dior haute couture dresses created in the atelier that is choreographed to spin around. The dresses feature silhouettes Christian Dior drew from 1949 to 1955, bearing names such as New York, Amérique and Fifth Avenue. 

Another critical aspect of the collaboration is the exclusive products offered. Dior classics include the Dior Saddle Bag ($4,000), Dior strap ($1,300), Dior Book Tote bags ($3,500), and the Walk ‘n’ Dior sneakers ($1 090) that have been recreated in a revisited toile de Jouy print covered with butterflies, emblems of the Dior cruise 2024 collection and a key visual element of Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks. There is also the Dior J’Adior bracelet set ($420).

Among men’s merchandise is the recently revealed Dior Icons capsule by Kim Jones, including tailoring, sportswear, knitwear and denim, available exclusively for pre-order on Saks.com. In addition, a new Dior Maison collection that echoes the inspirations of the Dior Cruise 2024 collection is featured, including a candle ($900), tray ($550) and decorative pillow ($1,100), gifts that are only available at Saks.

Upstairs on the beauty floors, there’s a specially designed Dior Parfums pop-up — with all the Dior codes, such as the cuckoo clock, the stars and the botanical theme — featuring Dior makeup, fragrance and skincare holiday offers and services only available at Saks Fifth Avenue New York through Dec. 10. Key areas are the beauty concierge desk, two photo walls highlighting signature Dior perfumes, escalator table animations and Dior holiday gifting atelier featuring La Collection Privée. The takeover includes Saks-exclusive limited- and special-edition products, beauty services and client events. Peter Philips, creative and image director of Dior Makeup, has created four-holiday makeup looks, available exclusively at Saks’ New York flagship.

Among the beauty exclusives are a La Collection Privée D-Air Diffuser ($2,900), Dior Prestige x Neri & Hu ($2,900), Rouge Premier ($580), Dior x Othoniel J’Adore L’or ($15.000), Baby Dior Beauty ($115 to $230), and La Collection Privée 2023 Advent Calendar ($4,200).

Saks and Dior have added an extra dimension to their holiday partnership with an augmented reality (A.R.) social media experience. Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook users can launch an interactive A.R. filter to transform their content with design elements from Dior’s Carousel of Dreams at Saks, available through Jan. 5.

Check back for more arts and culture events in your city. Happy Holiday’s

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