Dior Is Bringing the ’60s Back
There has been a ton of talk at fashion shows recently about creating clothes that people actually want to wear. Someone who knows exactly what—and who—they’re designing for is Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior; and after over eight years at the helm of the house, she’s found her groove. The collections aren’t awe-inspiring, dramatic moments of fashion ecstasy, but rather a studious meditation on the modern feminine wardrobe that clearly works in real life, judging by the dozens of Dior supporters, like Natalie Portman, Jisoo, and Rosalía, to name a few, that descended upon the showspace on Tuesday morning.
Inside the massive white box at the Tuileries Garden, guests discovered custom wooden mannequins made of cane by the Indian artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, who worked with Chiuri to create the sculptures. Accompanying the installation were stills from a Kulkarni film, in which she plays a female warrior, displayed on the canvas adorning the venue’s walls. Kulkarni’s work probes the modern feminine mystique and asks who gets to view female forms, especially in the age of the internet, with eyes and ears everywhere. It begs the question: What do women need today to protect themselves?
Chiuri’s answer is very simple. She took inspiration from former the 1967 Miss Dior diffusion line, which creative director Marc Bohan let his assistant design as a more everyday choice versus the couture the brand was known for. This meant clothing that allowed for movement, which Chiuri brought back to the runway with easy cropped jackets and A-line skirts in mod-style plaids and creamy cashmeres. Classic trenches abounded in classic tan, denim, and black, plus pitch-perfect leather jackets and anoraks that looked great over swishing midi skirts. Easy relaxed suiting and loose knits tied together the effortless yet confident silhouette Dior has mastered, some cheekily emblazoned with the old Miss Dior logo. Key accessories were slouchy over-the-knee boots in shiny black leather, and Motomami-approved sleek black sunglasses that brought the look firmly into 2024.
When it came time for the finale, Chiuri left all the embellishment in the collection for a show-stopping run of ’60s-meets-’20s flapper dresses. Elongated, fluid shifts in silk crepe were captivating in ivory, and countered the embroidered pieces wonderfully. It would be nice to see Chiuri put these kinds of dresses on different body types, to show how real women travel in the world. But overall, one can tell that even the more intricate pieces don’t inhibit the woman; they add to her power and make her stand up taller. And no doubt the Dior customer responds to that kind of feminine instinct, as Chiuri is one of the few female creative directors at a major fashion label. Those details can only be appreciated by fellow women.
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