Dior Cruise 2019: Preview
Maria Grazia Chiuri may have curbed her wandering instincts for this year’s Christian Dior cruise show, but her inspiration travels across continents.
Chances were strong that her collection, to be unveiled on Friday night in the Great Stables of the Domaine de Chantilly, would weave in an equestrian theme, but the designer is sure to surprise with outfits inspired by the female riders, called escaramuzas, that compete in Mexico’s version of rodeo.
With their embellished sombreros and embroidered cotton dresses, which flare out into tiered skirts layered with petticoats, the riders cut dashing figures as they perform stunts at full gallop, all the while riding sidesaddle.
The fearlessness of the sport taps right into Chiuri’s love for strong women, a running thread in all her collections since she took over as creative director for women’s wear in 2016, marking her debut show with “We should all be feminists” T-shirts.
“The reason I like the escaramuzas is because they do something that is so macho — rodeo — in our vision, but they decided to do that in their traditional dresses which are so pretty, so feminine,” she said during a fitting at Dior’s ready-to-wear workshop in Paris.
Chiuri, who has visited Mexico several times, returned there in July last year for a shoot with photographer Graciela Iturbide, known for her female-centric images, which reignited her fascination with the local culture.
And before anyone utters the words “cultural appropriation,” be aware that she wrestled long and hard with her desire to pay homage to Mexican art and folklore. First in line among her potential critics: her daughter and muse Rachele Regini, who as a Millennial is finely attuned to the dangers of cultural pastiche.
“She is obsessed with this idea that we are not to use other cultures,” Chiuri had shared in a separate interview in January. Chiuri, meanwhile, is more in tune with her predecessor John Galliano, who drew inspiration from sources including Masai warriors, Egyptian pharaohs and Japanese geishas in his Dior collections.
“We were another generation, where we never thought about this argument, because for us, it was a celebration of other cultures. But now the new generation — I see my son and my daughter — are so different. They believe that if you use the other culture, it is not right,” she pondered at the time.
In the end, Chiuri found a valid reason to reinterpret the Adelita dresses worn by some female riders in Mexico’s charreada tournaments: she reckons they dovetail with her own heritage.
“This kind of tradition of embroidery is part of my culture, which comes from southern Italy where my father was born, but also in the south of France, as in South America,” she said. “In some way, I think that all the South has the same language. When we speak about lace, when we speak about embroidery, it’s such a part of different countries that it’s very difficult to understand where they come from.”
Fittingly, given the location, the designs also hark back to Chantilly’s rich history of lacemaking. Chiuri used the delicate fabric, whether in graphic inlays or frothy ruffles, on full-skirted looks worn with chunky belts and her updated take on combat boots: a heavy-soled rubber and Neoprene lace-up design dubbed Diorcamp.
She gathered acres of tulle into featherlight petticoats, while sheer mesh skirts were delicately embroidered with lattice or Toile de Jouy motifs. The latter fabric, traditionally used for interiors, is something of a house signature, appearing in vintage creations such as a pair of shoes designed by Roger Vivier in 1956.
“Toile de Jouy is a very traditional Dior element. I decided to change the print. I put some animals to give it a twist, just a little bit ‘sauvage,’ less traditional,” said Chiuri. The pattern, featuring tigers and serpents, is woven through silk dresses or printed on more casual items like a trenchcoat or a denim shirt.
“You don’t necessarily have to buy a beautiful embroidered evening dress, you can also buy something more simple, like a pullover, with the same element,” she said. “You can find something that is really democratic, like denim, with a code that is really Dior, but that maintains this kind of couture culture.”
With its oversized pockets, the season’s signature hourglass jacket is a spin on a 1948 design by founder Christian Dior dubbed Rodeo, which featured a long pencil skirt with flaring panels inspired by cowboy chaps. An asymmetrically draped skirt nods to the 1951 Amazon dress, named after the French term for riding sidesaddle.
“I want to translate our heritage into something that is very wearable,” Chiuri explained. “It’s important to look to the heritage, but it’s important to see it with the eye of the now, otherwise you are doing vintage or a museum piece.”
As the house noted when announcing this year’s cruise location, several of its designs over the years have carried or evoked the name of Chantilly, starting with Dior’s fall 1947 collection, which featured an evening dress christened after the town and its famous castle.
Although the venue is just 30 miles outside Paris, Chiuri hopes it will feel as exotic as the dusty Santa Monica Mountains where she showcased her cruise line last year. She pictures the models as characters in Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits,” a classic of the magical realism literary genre.
“That’s the atmosphere that I would like to have for the show. The show is a film in my mind,” she said with a laugh.
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