Picture by Picture

Photography by Brigitte Niedermair. Image courtesy of UBS.

Donning a jet-black layered bowl cut and a black-line rose tattoo on her chest, model Asako Sato poses in a swirling gown with a bold, Paul Cézanne-inspired floral print underneath a long satin-organza coat. The ensemble is from Gianfranco Ferré’s Spring/Summer 1995 haute couture collection, and it has been reimagined in this postmodern pastiche by Brigitte Niedermair.

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When it comes to a painstaking attention to detail, Dior has something of a soulmate in Niedermair. Over the 15 years the Paris-based photographer has worked with the brand, she has developed an intimate knowledge of its archives, spanning eight decades back to its beginnings as a French couturier in 1946. Now, Niedermair is putting her insight to use in an exhibition in New York City curated by Carine Roitfeld. 

Photography by Brigitte Neidermair. Image courtesy of UBS.

“UBS House of Craft x Dior” showcases archival documentation alongside select designs from Dior’s seven creative directors, plus Kim Jones, the artistic director of menswear until earlier this year. Then there are Niedermair’s photographs of present-day models, like Sato, wearing nearly three dozen historical looks dating back to the 1940s. “I work picture by picture, image by image,” she explains. Every photograph of hers begins with a drawing, outlining the concept. “Making a dress and making an image needs the same attention,” she adds. “It's this kind of craftsmanship on both sides.”

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A photograph of a Spring/Summer 2015 look from Raf Simons’ tenure contrasts the dress’ geometric composition and unnatural silver, green, and blue hues with pink roses balanced on the model’s shoulders, plus one in her mouth. Elsewhere, Lindsey Wixson acts as the timeless conduit between two photographs symbolizing different eras of the fashion house’s iconic New Look silhouette. In a 1947 ecru bar jacket designed by Christian Dior, she poses with a hand on her hip, her other arm bent demurely in a v-shape, mimicking a certain pose seen in mid-century fashion photography. In the second, she has the same hand on her hip and her other arm in the air as she sports a billowing red gown from 2004 by John Galliano. (Niedermair considers how this sort of performative body language has changed from decade to decade: “You see it evolving, the opening of the women’s body” she says. “From the beginning to now, you can see a liberation.”) Other pieces by Maria Grazia Chiuri, who recently ended her nine-year run at the fashion house, Marc Bohan, and Yves Saint Laurent, are likewise highlighted through archival pictures and drawings as well as through Niedermair’s reimagining of their looks, all coalescing to round out the house’s history with an innovative twist. 

Image courtesy of UBS.

The common thread, after all, is craft—a note driven home with two Dior tailors on site at the exhibition assembling, one hand-stitch at a time, a real bar jacket and evening dress. “There’s a lot of confusion in fashion about what is handmade and what is made industrially. So I think this format is an interesting way to talk to a wider audience,” says Niedermair of UBS House of Craft’s broader initiative, which supports craftsmanship across disciplines. The photographer also has a book coming out in September, Dior Niedermair Drawing Photography, which chronicles the drawings she makes that lay the groundwork for each of her images.

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“I describe myself as a sartorial photographer, making couture in photography,” she says. “I'm questioning, Why put this picture together in this way? Why put this girl in this outfit? Why this hair? It has a connection to art history. It has a connection to the history of Dior. It has a connection to the timelines we are living. There is nothing left out. It is all very studied.”

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‍“UBS House of Craft x Dior” will be on view June 6-8, 2025 at 28 Pine Street, New York, New York, 10005.