Christian DiorFall/Winter 2021
In every collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri chooses a territory where the time-space dimension is erased: suggestions and intentions give form and contours to an articulated constellation of clothes and accessories. For Christian Dior Fall-Winter 20/21 ready-to-wear collection, the Creative Director explores the world of fairy tales.
A network of symbols, the tale is hardly just a means of escape: it serves to challenge and revisit stereotypes and archetypes. It consists of a narrative projected into the future. Revisited by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the toy soldier’s uniform thus transforms into a series of blue cashmere coats embellished with touches of red and white. Shimmering lamé and Lurex jacquards lend this stylized silhouette a metallic shine; fabrics made with gold and silver threads appear to float as if by magic. Black boldly asserts itself on a range of pieces from skirts to the Bar jacket punctuated with the cannage motif, an iconic Dior code, or with a hood that might have been worn by Angela Carter’s Little Red Riding Hood.
Red is a through line, on little coats (“I think a red coat is very nice!” wrote Monsieur Dior in The Little Dictionary of Fashion): it illuminates capes and raincoats always with hoods. It permeates tartans via an archival rose motif** evoking the original tale of Beauty and the Beast, of which Maria Grazia Chiuri is particularly fond, notably in Jean Cocteau’s film adaptation, itself inspired by the fairy tales of two writers: Madame d’Aulnoy, a contemporary of Perrault, and Madame Leprince de Beaumont.
Evening gowns are fit for princesses, in layered tulles that seem to evaporate in a froth of marvelous colors. Then there are white collars, plastrons in broderie anglaise, and white bobby socks recalling the world of childhood.
A new self-awareness, born of a feminine sensibility that knows how to blend memories of the past and maturity, as if by magic.
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