These unseen Dior photos highlight Peter Lindbergh’s inimitable legacy

While Peter Lindbergh may have sadly passed away in September, he leaves a vast legacy behind. The famed photographer captured some of the biggest fashion moments and faces of his time, and, in the process, helped to redefine existing beauty ideals within the industry. 

Now, a number of never-before-seen images are compiled into a new coffee table book entitled Dior/Lindbergh. Shot in 2018 mostly in Times Square, the book is filled with a series of Lindbergh’s signature black and white photographs – as well as a few in technicolour – which shine a light on Dior’s 70 year-history in an entirely new way. Models including Dazed cover stars Alex Wek and Sasha Pivovarova are seen in archival pieces designed by Christian Dior himself, while others are seen wearing contemporary garments created by Maria Grazia Chiuri, John Galliano, and Raf Simons. All in all, think of it as the most luxurious and bougie street style photography project to date.

“His idea was to photograph 80 ensembles, representing the history of Dior, on the streets of New York,” curator and art writer Martin Harrison writes in the book’s introduction. “This was both a masterstroke of recontextualisation and a crazy extravaganza. An unprecedented number of over a hundred priceless garments had to be removed from the Dior Museum, security-crated, and shipped to Manhattan.” 

The project is the latest in an extensive list of collaborations between Dior and Lindbergh. From shooting Charlize Theron for the iconic J’Adore perfume campaigns, to countless magazine editorials for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Dior/Lindbergh feels like a fitting and poignant way to highlight their long-standing relationship. With each renowned for their focus on the simple elegance of women’s fashion, and their colossal impact on the worlds they inhabit, Lindbergh’s work was defined by his desire to portray women naturally and embrace their unique sensitivities – a sentiment that is felt keenly throughout the book. 

With photographs are as varied as the pieces they capture, the book sees models casually walking by McDonald’s in John Galliano’s AW01 collection for the house, and crossing the bustling streets of Manhattan in a black dress designed by Christian Dior in 1947. “The cycle of fashion, and of fashion photography, turns again,” Harrison concludes in his introduction, “and this unusual and edgy collection (of images) constitutes one of the rare triumphs of its recent history.”

Dior/Lindbergh introduced by Martin Harrison is published by TASCHEN and available to buy here.