FOR DIOR Haute Couture AW19, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri focused on the art of the silhouette, the architecture of clothing and our relationship with design. Inspired by the late architect Bernard Rudofsky and the name of his 1944 Moma exhibition, Chirui began the show by asking the audience a question– are clothes modern? The question was printed on a Greek-styled t-shirt dress and set the mood for the rest of the couture collection, through the almost all-black colour palette of the pieces, it is clear that Chiuri is asking audiences to focus on the structure and function of clothing as well as directly paying homage to Christian Dior himself. As Chiuri says, “I feel like a generation black person as I love this colour, but also for Christian Dior it was the synonym of elegance, so I started also from here to create everything.”
The nuanced elegance of black is showcased through a variety of pieces that combine modernity with a vintage flair. A-line dresses, lace necklines and floor-length capes create a gothic fairytale theme enhanced by the design of the catwalk. Set at the Dior Paris headquarters, Chiuri collaborated with feminist artist Penny Slinger to create the dark forest of blooming roses and gnarled trees where the models walked.
Though the collection’s colour pallette was mostly limited to black, Chiuri shows an extrodinary accomplishment by incorporating a sense of lightness and weightlessness into her designs, showcased by a variety of netted veils and tulle dresses. Chirui’s desire to find strength in lightness was inspired by the late legendary filmmaker, Agnès Varda, who passed away earlier this year. Varda’s documentary, Les Dites Cariatides, focused on the Greek mythological creature, the carytid, a sculpted woman who served an architectual purpose by becoming a column of support. Just like Varda’s carytids, Chiuri creates a collection that focuses on architecture and sculpture not as stagnant art form, but one that can be modernised through the functional lightness of clothing.
With her final couture piece, Chiuri displayed the architectual theme of her collection without holding back. The last look featured a golden doll house fitted as a dress, the design was inspired by Slinger’s series of Doll Houses from the mid seventies. Slinger’s idea for her concept stemmed from the desire to, “take the idea of a child’s toy and turn it into an adult one, full of inner landscapes for the psyche rather than house furnishings.” Thus, like Slinger, Chirui concludes her show by challenging the the audience to rest on thoughts of spirituality, femininity and sexuality.
by Mirabella Shahidullah