Wide midi skirts, striking waists, floral prints, gloves and heels: the Dior woman draws her strength from an ultra-feminine wardrobe inspired by the 50s and imbued with a punk spirit in her new collection to be presented this Tuesday at Paris Fashion Week.
“These years are very important for the house, founded in 1947. I also wanted to create a collection inspired by Paris, because we have a better idea of ​​what happened in the United States in the 1950s,” said the Italian women’s clothing designer . collections told AFP Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
It was at this time that Christian Dior invented the famous New Look silhouette for the post-war woman, symbolized by fitted round-shouldered jackets and wide skirts above the knees.
But what interests Maria Grazia Chiuri most are the women who wore these garments, in the context of the “intellectual fervor” of the time, after obtaining the right to vote and the publication of “Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir.
– Independent and punk –
After the haute couture collection that Joséphine Baker celebrated in January, this ready-to-wear collection is inspired by three of the brand’s clients: the designer’s sister Catherine Dior, resistant, florist, businesswoman and who refused to marry, the muse of the existentialists Juliette Gréco and the popular singer Edith Piaf, a “hard to beat” like few others.
“Besides being very elegant, they had a bit of a punk attitude,” emphasizes Maria Grazia Chiuri.
In the show, the models appeared, accompanied by the voice of Edith Piaf with “Non, je ne regrette rien”, in the sinuous landscape of a giant flower imagined by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. Christened “Miss Dior Valkyrie”, it evokes the spirit of Catherine Dior, “a strong and sensitive woman”, explains Vasconcelos.
“Contrary to the idea we have of a romantic and fragile Miss Dior, in reality she is a very strong and independent woman who has done very important things in her life,” emphasizes Chiuri.
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These three muses with very different profiles “give a very different picture of Paris in the 1950s”.
– Innovative embossing –
For autumn-winter 2023, this rebellious and countercurrent femininity will be expressed through the choice of innovative materials to make the line less rigid and the floral motifs reinterpreted in the texture that blurs the contours of the body.”
Black dresses and skirts in haute couture “duchess” fabric, with rust-resistant threads that create an embossed and wrinkled effect.
“This relief completely eliminates the idea of ​​the New Look being rigid and creates something that adapts to any body and allows for a much softer and more personal reinterpretation of the 1950s,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri.
– Feminist heels? –
The comma-shaped heel predominates in pointed toe platform shoes. They are worn with socks that reveal a little of the bare leg.
An evolution for the Italian designer, who previously saw the heel as something anti-feminist, but gradually began to introduce it into her collections over time.
Currently, “there is much more freedom and no need to wear heels” to prevail in the world of work, the designer believes, emphasizing that her collection also includes flat ankle boots. “I like to create collections for all occasions,” he says.
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