Please Note: This is an archived blog post from May 12, 2011. For more recent updates, view the latest REMIX news, Agency case studies or homepage

MOSCOW – More than 50 years after Christian Dior did the unthinkable and organized a show in the heart of Soviet Moscow, the storied French fashion house is back with another splash for the Russian capital.

Dior has transformed Moscow’s Pushkin Museum for “Inspiration Dior,” an exhibit that is in part an exploration of what drove the house’s founder to create his revolutionary silhouettes. It opens to the public Thursday, one day after the unveiling of the house’s redesigned boutique on Moscow’s luxury-lined Stoleshnikov Lane.

Luxurious ballgowns from the five designers that comprise the house’s 64-year history stand beside paintings by Toulouse Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard, photographs by Man Ray and Richard Avedon, Japanese prints and rarely seen works by Cézanne. The grand staircase leading to the halls that make up the exhibit stands dimmed, its centerpiece a work by contemporary Russian artists that has Dior’s signature bag emerging from stone, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures.