Dior’s black pantheon

At the Musée Rodin, the Dior fashion show set-up is conceived with artist Mickalene Thomas, who extols a pantheon of black or mixed-ethnicity women who became role models by breaking racial barriers, going against the grain. «It all became about by visiting Mickalene’s New York studio», Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of womenswear for the Lvmh fashion house, explained in the backstage green room.

The designer has a mood board behind her picturing shots of Joséphine Baker at various moments of her unique and unparalleled life, from the 1920s to the 1970s. «I also talked to her about Tina Turner and Donna summer, and then we discussed about this great American star of the 1920s who is much better known in Europe than in the Us». Baker’s images embody a kind of dress biography: dancer, performer, member of the French resistance, civil right activist for African Americans, humanist, and do-gooder.

«In couture, I like to take weight off and to work on the peplum, a great obsession of mine. Building without the weight of construction». The comfort and intimacy of that transitional situation toward the stage that is the dressing room is evoked by a series of coats, a cast of that robe that conceals and protects. In light velvet, crumpled and sinewy, or lined in matelassé. They open on light petticoats, on underwear, the protagonist, in satin from powdery colors to black, a contemporary interpretation of 1950s costumes. Dresses that glide over the body and caress it. They are in silk, they are in velvet, many with that crumpled effect, from syncopated rhythm, that gives life to the fabric.

Bangs sloping in silver and gold accompany and enhance the choreography of body movements. The suits and coats are made in the masculine fabrics dear to monsieur Dior. The length is always above the ankle and reveals silk velvet shoes with a prominent heel and base. In the front row, some friends of the Maison ranging from Catherine Deneuve to Roger Federer, Baz Luhrmann with his costume designer wife Catherine Martin to Blackpink, all focused on a show made of details.

Judgment. «Lightness» was the title of one of Italo Calvino’s Six memos for the next Millennium. An approach by means of levare, as Michelangelo wrote, which Maria Grazia Chiuri masters and cultivates. Her approach of studying and collaborating with other talents is appreciated, as she will be with Chiara Ferragni at the Sanremo music festival. Many sophisticated daytime looks which perhaps are the Designer’s real pride. Her couture is never shouted but instead well-thought. By women for women. (all rights reserved)