What has changed in the 68 years since Christian Dior founded his atelier is that the story now needs to reach customers far from the Avenue Montaigne.
So, in pursuit of the pot of gold at the end of the luxury rainbow, Christian Dior travelled from Paris to Tokyo to stage a catwalk show for 1,200 guests at Japan's national sumo wrestling arena on December 11, billed as a celebration of Dior's historical links with Japan.
But Raf Simons, the 46-year-old Belgian designer who has been at the helm of Dior for two years, put an unexpected twist in the familiar Dior-in-Japan plot with the collection he unveiled in Tokyo. There is no place in Simons' vision of Dior for cherry blossoms or kimonos.
"There is no literal Japanese reference in this collection at all," he says. "To do a Japanese collection in Japan isn't interesting to me. We have moved on from that. The world is not so insular. Women in Japan look to European fashion, and I am fascinated by Japanese fashion. It is that tension that is interesting to me."
Instead, Simons took Tokyo to stand for a "futuristic, urban environment. When I think about Japan, I think about the fashion activity on the street. The mix of people, the urban energy; a life that happens partly outside. Blade Runner is a strong reference for this collection."