Dress featuring “Free France” motifs:
This dress belonged to Mrs Dio, the wife of General Louis Dio who was a Companion of the Liberation; it features the main Free France symbols.
About the item
This dress is attributed to Mrs Dio, the wife of General Louis Dio.
A Companion of the Liberation and Colonial Infantry Captain, he stood with Leclerc at Douala on 27 August 1940 and helped to rally Equatorial Africa before fighting in all the Free France battles; he then took over from Leclerc in June 1945, thus in October becoming the French Army’s youngest general.
The motifs printed on this dress include the main symbols from the Free France saga:
- the wording on the poster “À tous les Français” (“To All Frenchmen”) (this poster is often confused with the wording of the Appeal of 18 June)
- the insignia of the Free French Forces’ army, navy and air forces
- the signature of its leader, General de Gaulle.
Such printing of political and patriotic motifs was allegedly inspired by the traditional African boubou which features motifs symbolising the ethnic and social origins of its wearer.
Boubous printed with photos of political leaders or parties’ or movements’ posters are in fact still regularly produced for commemorative events and elections.
Practical information
Cartel
Date: 1945
Width: 55 cm and Height: 135 cm
Creator: Mrs Dio
Inventory No.: 998.573
Materials: Silk
History: This dress was acquired by the Museum when in 1997 it purchased the collections of the Musée France 40 in Abbeville, preparatory to the creation in 2000 of two thousand square metres of exhibition rooms devoted to the Second World War. This item is evidence of the Museum’s interest in civil collections with close connections to the military.