“Haute couture is one of the last repositories of the marvelous, and the couturiers the last possessors of the wand of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother.” — Christian Dior
“When Maison Christian Dior first opened, it had three workrooms in the office of 30 Avenue Montaigne, a tiny studio, a salon in which to show the dresses, a cabine or dressing-room for the mannequins, an office, and six small fitting-rooms,” recounted Monsieur Dior in his memoirs.
Today, you can walk through this “repositor of the marvelous,” the beating heart of the House of Dior since its founding, now home to La Galerie Dior. And with this program in hand Your Survival Guy and Gal walked through the historic halls of Dior.
Born in 1905 and gone in 1957, Christian Dior knew he would not live to be an old man telling the mother of his newly hired 19-year-old assistant, Yves Saint Laurent, as much two years before his death. When you consider Dior’s “New Look” and what he accomplished in ten years from 1947-1957, he revolutionized the codes of elegance and femininity explains Dior La Galerie. He was the fashion equivalent of the yet-to-be-heard Beatles.
In the 1970s, LVMH founder Bernard Arnault was in a taxi in New York City and asked the driver if he was familiar with France, if he knew, for example, who the president of France was. Without hesitating, the driver said no, he only knew of the name Christian Dior. A light bulb went off in Arnault’s head. And when the company Dior was seeking to exit bankruptcy, it was the name Christian Dior that Arnault wanted because he knew what it stood for. The name lives on.
I want you to visit the gallery right off Avenue Montaigne, and I want you to think about your investments today. Because it was 1965, more than 50 years ago, that Dick Young began his investment career in Boston, MA, calling on the likes of Wellington Management and Fidelity.
Today, his investment boutique is guided by the same principles that put him on the investment map: Don’t speculate, don’t sector weight, and don’t use leverage. He brought truth to the Main Street investor when the truth was hard to come by—still is.
Action Line: Enjoy this video from Maison Christian Dior, and remember, diversification and patience built on a foundation of value and compound interest can be your magic wand for your retirement life. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
Read more about Your Survival Guy’s adventures in Paris here.
