Building the House of Dreams
What ‘The Dream’ means to me in my role as Head of Architecture at Dior.
Gigi Baini // Head of Architecture, Christian Dior
Christian Dior believed that tradition exists to be “stretched, pulled, and teased– to become, again and again, contemporary, fresh, stimulating and desirable.” In my role as Head of Architecture at the maison, I see upholding that tradition and spirit of disruption as a big responsibility.
With a new look, a museum, a restaurant, and the opportunity to stay in Monsieur Dior’s original apartment overnight, the 2022 reopening of 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris represents a dramatic evolution in ‘The Dream’, where we have been able to give the customer, whoever they may be, the experience of living in the House of Dior– if only for a few hours.
As we enter a new era at the maison, I’d like to reflect on my own journey, as well as how building a strong team is the first step in any great architecture project, the power of what we can achieve when we have that strong foundation– and what the Dior dream means to me.
Brick by brick
You could say I am a globetrotter. From Italy, to New York, Hawaii, East Asia and, of course, France, I have been a student, an apprentice, a project manager, a consultant, a partner and now, director, working in many fields in the world of architecture. This journey was not so much a conscious plan I had as a sequence of events driven by my impulse for discovery and exploration. But although I am curious, I am also a very practical person. I learned early in my career that exceptional projects are a dance between dream and reality. You must understand everything there is to understand about what you are building, where, and for whom. As of 2023, I have been working within the LVMH Group for 17 years: coming to Dior four years ago after a 13-year experience at Fendi.
To speak the language of architecture, expertise is like a brick wall. You build it bit by bit, brick after brick. The more bricks you have, the stronger the wall, the safer your house. I feel lucky that Dior gives me the support and freedom to harness my devotion and experience– but also pass it along to the next generation of architects. I am not simply here to design and build projects; I’m here to help build people. We have a team of approximately 100 worldwide. One day, one of them will sit in my chair, and I will be happy because it will mean I have done a good job– not only in what we have built, but also in ensuring there is a consistency and a continuity in the knowledge and expertise at Dior.
Skillset vs. spirit
A good manager doesn’t want to be indispensable. I want to work with people who share my attitude: who are willing to learn and change and respond to the needs of the business in line with evolving challenges. It goes without saying that a lot of this comes from the individual’s own approach, passion, professionalism and skill. But, as leader, it is up to me to inject what is needed to help people grow both their knowledge and their confidence. Being indispensable ultimately means that no one can do what you do. Our egos might think this is a good thing, but the reality is it is limiting. Being in this position means that you can never detach; you must have eyes on everything. Then, when the day comes when you have to leave, everything you have worked so hard to achieve collapses like a house of cards. The aim is to empower. I want to leave behind a strong team of visionaires: dynamic, with an entrepreneurial spirit and a dream of their own.
Obviously, I can’t bear this responsibility alone. I have a close group of senior colleagues that support me and the team in everything we do. The pyramidal structure we have allows team members working at all levels to benefit transversally from the support and experience of all those above, not just those at the top. This, in turn, gives me the liberty to move around as needed. I always say, you need to create a strong rule, then find a way to skip it in a way that benefits both the team and the business. This is how we have been able to bring our most recent and ambitious dream to life.
Making Montaigne
Montaigne, for many, has changed the face of architecture in retail. A journey through the very fabric and essence of Dior, this new interpretation of the dream is incredibly valuable; to the business, of course, but also on a personal level. I am proud to be one of the very few who worked alongside our former CEO and visionaire Pietro Beccari to realise the project from start to finish. Pietro always says, “the sky is the limit”, and I think Montaigne shows the sorcery that can happen when you really embody that philosophy.
Montaigne is Dior’s spiritual home: historic, iconic, and irreplaceable. That history has been reimagined to seed a new generation of Dior architecture. In the new Montaigne, we have unravelled the understanding of what a boutique can be and spun it into something new– where the client has the experience of living in the house of dreams for as long as they like. In 2023, you don’t come to Dior to buy a product. You come for an experience. You come for emotion. For history. Art. Extraordinary food. Luxurious spa treatments. It’s a place where you can spend the day– the average time clients visit Montaigne has already leapt from one to four hours plus. We also have a private suite, where people can stay in Monsieur Dior’s apartment, and even visit the permanent exhibit in their pyjamas in the middle of the night if they wish.
But I think it’s important to note that, in its new vision, Dior is more accessible. Among many other changes, we have brought down the dresses in the boutique from their pedestals, both literally and metaphorically, played with new, fresh colours, and altered the dynamic of spaces to open up the maison to those looking in from the street. This is fundamental in understanding the new face of Dior.
The Dust and the Dream
Today, as always, we have to work to ensure there is flawless cohesion between the dream of the artistic director, the products, the communications and, yes, the buildings. Every step of the way, we have to ask ourselves, are we doing what Monsieur Dior would have done? Are we daring as much as he dared with his New Look in 1947? Or it is possible that we are daring too much? Answering these questions is never straightforward, but we have to ask them. We have to stay rooted in the tradition, history, and spirit of Dior, while acknowledging that what was disruptive 70 years ago is, by definition, not disruptive today.
The dream is the work of many, many people. Its allure is our combined creativity. Speaking for my team, we are not the sort of designers who sketch their ideas out and pass them over to someone else. We create. We build. We tend to be very conscious of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Even in the luxury world, Dior is special; with only one or two genuine competitors. All fashion houses have a story that starts somewhere: equestrian, small leather goods, luggage, or jewellery. From the beginning, the Maison has been about couture – and what is couture, but architecture for the body? In both disciplines, you have this compelling conflict between the technical and the creative; precision and beauty; structure and softness; steel and roses. The dream is the continuous process of weaving those very different but equally important elements together in an endless braid. Everyone here understands that we can never separate the hard realness of what we do from the soft romance – that is Dior.
It’s not only beautiful to work with these people; it’s also fun. We are a dynamic team, speaking many languages; not just French and Italian, but the language of art, of business, of skill, of leadership. The conflict between the creative soul and technical precision is a constant source of tension in our world, but it is also where the most magic happens. It is a pendulum that never stops. We may not see the dream in our work every single day, but we can smell the dust which is necessary to create it. On some days, we see a lot of dust, but the dream is what comes through in the end when the dust settles.
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