With scenography by OMA, Dior’s ‘Designer of Dreams’ exhibition in Seoul is ‘a piece of theatre’

‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ arrives in Seoul this spring, marking the exhibition's ninth iteration since its 2017 debut at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs. After captivating London, Shanghai, Tokyo, and other global capitals, the show finds new form at Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

Under fashion historian and longtime Dior collaborator Florence Müller’s evolving curation, the exhibition traces over 75 years of couture history – from Monsieur Dior’s artistic influences and garden fascinations to the sumptuous theatricality of balls. Her conceptual framework finds physical form through OMA’s New York partner Shohei Shigematsu, now on his fourth outing designing for the house, who has created a blockbuster tribute that celebrates Dior’s legacy through a millennial Korean-inflected lens.

‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul

Housed within Hadid’s curvilinear landmark, the exhibition unfolds with measured elegance. Shigematsu confronts a vast 2,000 sq m, columnless expanse with 16m-high ceilings, and transforms challenge into advantage with a dreamy sequence of themed vignettes that breathe with intention – where traditional hanbok fabrics and bojagi patchwork patterns create a subtle dialogue between East and West, and Dior’s past and present float through rooms and fashion milestones.

The spatial design itself whispers of couture techniques – room dividers echo fabric ruffles, while the volumes of classic silhouettes inform the very geometry of the spaces. In the Dior Garden room, for instance, dresses are suspended like botanical specimens beneath a ceiling where light projections shift with the hours and seasons, all contained within a minimalist vessel reminiscent of traditional Korean moon jars.

‘If you consider the whole exhibition as one piece of theatre, each room is a scene and the mannequins are the actors,’ explains Shigematsu. ‘Each room is different, but as a whole, you see the consistency of Dior.’ This cinematic approach transforms an otherwise imposing space into an altogether more intimate reading of the maison’s evolution.

But what elevates ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ beyond mere retrospective is its conversation with Korean artistry. Works by actress Kim Hyun Joo, painter and sculptor Soo Sunny Park, and multimedia creator Zadie Xa intertwine with Dior’s legacy, while local interpretations of the Lady Dior bag – 17 for the Lady Dior ‘As Seen By’ concept and nine for the Dior ‘Lady Art’ project – occupy a tunnel styled like a fantasy wardrobe, taking cues from video artist Nam June Paik and traditional Korean cabinetry.

‘What I respect about Dior is that they're really good at creating a multi-faceted domain,’ Shigematsu notes. ‘They deploy architecture, local design, scent, cultures – all of which converge to create a zeitgeist. A single domain – fashion – is not enough.’

From the iconic Bar jacket in ‘The New Look’ gallery to the dramatic double spiral staircase of ‘The Dior Ball’, where light projections conjure the spirit of grand cinematic choreography, the exhibition balances reverence with innovation. ‘It’s important not to glorify the past,’ insists Shigematsu. ‘A retrospective can also be forward-looking. You don’t want the visitor to say, “Oh, they just opened up the archives."’

In this Seoul iteration, the 75-year journey of Dior reveals itself not as a static archive but, rather, a thoroughly immersive, contemporary experience that acknowledges its roots while refusing to be defined by them.

‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ will be showing in Art Hall 1 of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul from 19 April to 13 July 2025.

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