Dior's creative director is one of the prize posts in the fashion hierarchy

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Dior is the name on everyone's lips right now: former creative director Raf Simons left last month, and his successor is yet to be named. The rumours swirl.

Why? because it is one of the prize posts in the fashion hierarchy. Dior is a name that transformed the way women dressed, and made the world look new, with the New Look: a sucked-in, jutted-out shape that cemented Dior's name in the annals of fashion.

If you need reminding of it, Dior has just released a lavish coffee table book (1 - see gallery below) celebrating a few of its greatest hits, as immortalised by the photographer Richard Avedon. The cinch-waisted, fabric-heavy New Look features prominently.

That hourglass silhouette – arch femininity, sculptural and dramatic – is still potent today. Alber Elbaz got the hang of it a while ago, in clothes such as this swaggering scarlet greatcoat (2). Elbaz is a name being batted about for the Dior crown – he departed the house of Lanvin last month, too. Coincidence?

Of course, if you're looking to buy into Dior's style you could look backwards: williamvintage has a lavish array of past pieces. This 1959 cocktail dress (3), designed by Dior's hand-picked successor, Yves Saint Laurent, still feels contemporary.

Dior's salon was – and still is – punctuated by faux-Louis XVI medallion-backed chairs (4). They're one of the house's "codes". Philippe Starck's ghostly plastic version is still a best-seller, and an apt metaphor for the challenges facing any designer coming in: how to make the old look new?

Another code? roses (6). They are packed into the heart of miss dior (5) – introduced the same year as the New Look, 1947. There's even a rose with the same name. Said flower is out of season right now – they bloom in March. By which time, we hope, we'll have a new dauphin at Dior.