Christian Dior had the Sun in Aquarius, the Moon in Cancer and Scorpio rising: a shy man from a seaside town who changed the way the world dressed in a single morning in 1947, and a designer who, unusually, took his own horoscope seriously.

He was born at 1:30 in the morning on 21 January 1905 in Granville, on the coast of Normandy. Astro-Databank rates the time AA, from a quoted birth record. Before fashion he was an art dealer: in 1928 he opened a gallery in Paris with his friend Jacques Bonjean, and later, at the Galerie Pierre Colle, he was among the dealers of Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder and Salvador Dalí. His family lost its fortune in the Depression, and he came to fashion late, as a designer for Robert Piguet and then Lucien Lelong.

Sun in Aquarius, the sign of the new

Aquarius looks to the future and is not afraid to break with the past. His Sun is at the very first degree of the sign. Backed by the textile manufacturer Marcel Boussac, he opened his own house on the avenue Montaigne, and his first collection, shown on 12 February 1947, swept away the boxy, rationed look of the war years with soft shoulders, small waists and long, full skirts. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar, called it the "New Look", and the name stuck.

Mercury opposite Neptune

The tightest aspect in his chart is an opposition between Mercury, the planet of ideas, and Neptune, the planet of dreams and fantasy, within a fifth of a degree. It describes a designer who thought in images and moods rather than in practical clothes, and who wanted fashion to feel like a dream after years of hardship. Neptune also rules mystery and the unseen: he was famously superstitious, consulted a fortune-teller, Madame Delahaye, and often worked lucky charms into his collections.

Venus in Pisces in the 4th house, and the Moon in Cancer

The 4th house is home, childhood and the mother, and his Venus, the planet of beauty, sits there in Pisces, its most romantic sign. His Moon is in Cancer, the sign of home and memory. The family house in Granville, Les Rhumbs, with the garden his mother loved, stayed with him all his life, in his flowers, his perfumes and his sense of a gentle, lost world. The house is now the Musée Christian Dior.

Scorpio rising, and a Leo Midheaven

Scorpio rising is private and intense, and Mars, its traditional ruler, sits just above his Ascendant in the 12th house, the most hidden part of the chart. He was known as shy and reserved. His Midheaven, the public role, is in Leo, the sign of glamour and the stage, and his name became one of the most famous in fashion. He died in Italy in October 1957, aged 52, having named his young assistant Yves Saint Laurent as his successor.

Compare your chart with his

If you share his Aquarius Sun or his Scorpio rising, you may know the mix of a very private nature and an urge to change how things are done. Add your details below to see how your chart meets his.