A Walk Through Christian Dior’s Gardens—and His Psyche, with Naomi Sachs of Landscape Architecture

Dior grew up in a seaside house in Normandy with a lush and fragrant garden, part of which his mother commissioned him to design when he was 10 years old. It was his first designing experience, and a way to be close to his mother, says Sachs.

But his family was forced to sell the property following the 1929 market crash. “He longed to recreate the paradise of his childhood, both physically and emotionally, and would spend the rest of his life searching for the feeling of that first home,” she says.

When Dior moved to Paris, the unrelenting and frenetic work environment did not suit his temperament. As a budding designer, he rented a small, rustic home in the countryside, where he could reconnect with nature, decompress and feel freer to be himself.

In 1949, he bought a property in Milly-la-Fôret with a watermill that dated to the 13th century, then redesigned the site to echo the green spaces from his childhood home. Around the same time, Dior also purchased a larger property near Cannes, where he created a series of stone terraces overlooking the valley and planted hundreds of trees, evergreen shrubs and herbs—and found the scents that infused his signature perfumes.

“One of the benefits of being in nature is creativity,” says Sachs. “Dior was a perfect example of someone who used nature to rejuvenate himself.”

Original story published by Terp Magazine.