Dior takes the runway in Mexico on the wings of Frida Kahlo

«I believe that Frida Kahlo is not only the best-known woman artist ever, but she also knew how to transform herself into a work of art», Maria Grazia Chiuri said in a backstage surrounded by tropical plants and bouquets of strelitzias, the starting point of the Dior Cruise 2024 show, taking place in Mexico City. «I had wanted to do a show here for years. It was a hard work, but a wonderful experience». Two hours before the start of the show, the baroque vaults of the Colegio de San Ildefonso are buzzing with activity. It is a symbolic place, a former Jesuit boarding school that became a preparatory school for the university over a century ago, and the place where Frida Kahlo met the painter Diego Rivera, the long-suffering love of a lifetime. Against the backdrop of a Rivera mural, nine models pose for a rush shot. Intermittent rain tries to spoil the show, and until it is time to start, it is not known whether the models will take the runway in the baroque courtyards under the downpour or sheltered by the vaults of the Jesuit joint. Then, they gather courage and start under the rain.

The first outfits are immediately a statement with butterflies transformed into bijoux and embroidery, which will be the common thread. Even Lorenzo Jovanotti, in an oversized red shirt, wears a necklace from the fittings. «Maria Grazia (Chiuri ed.) has been able to breathe a new life into a historic brand such as Dior. I do not understand brands, but I like the game of fashion. I like the desire of transformation, to see oneself as different and to like oneself,» he said in the backstage on the second floor of the college. The clothes pay homage to Frida Kahlo’s style, with counterpoints of shapes, echoes of Tehuana traditions, wide skirts with the traditional huipil tunic. For this new line unveiled in Mexico, Maria Grazia Chiuri built once again a relationship with the local know-how and artisans.

«They have a tradition of small looms here that I would like to help enhance. That is why I will return in november for a talk. I also met with the minister of culture,» the designer said. Original embroideries and co-creations made with their workshops adorn, in particular, dresses and shirts. Backstage, the moodboards are filled with newspaper clippings featuring the famous artistic couple, but also with creations by monsieur Dior, who has been paying homage to Mexico since 1947. In 1954, abetted by local star María Félix, Dior spent three months showing in Central and South America.

The figure of Frida Kahlo thus became a connector with the culture of this land. An artist who transcends her body through clothes that become representation, protest, affirmation. A casket for a broken body in which a hidden butterfly becomes a motif declined in many colors and shapes in a series of prints. Nocturnal butterflies come to life on silhouettes, from a drawing by Andrée Brossin de Méré recovered in the Dior archives. Chiuri took inspiration from the Mexican artist’s photographs, which challenge the boundaries of male and female gender. «From the age of 19, she wore a three-piece suit, transgressing her femininity, to claim an independence that was first and foremost intellectual».

For the finale, the show closes with an art performance by Elina Chauvet and a group of 16 embroiderers creating a project entitled «A corazón abierto,» meaning «with an open heart» in Spanish. Using twenty white canvases, cotton muslin dresses from the Dior archives and made in Paris workshops, they affix their words and symbols stitched with red cotton threads, composing a performance whose dresses, Chiuri reveals, «will soon be exhibited in the Galerie Dior in Avenue Montaigne».

Judgment. «Fashion, before tying to brands, is above all a way of expressing oneself, of transforming oneself. And Frida Kahlo has shown this awareness since her adolescence,» Chiuri concluded. Clothes to come out of one’s shell, like chrysalises from which butterflies are born. The moodboard explicitly quotes Guadalupe Nettel’s book, The Body Where I was Born, on the theme of female physicality. The bar jacket is reinterpreted in indigo denim, utility outfits are softened by micro capes, sophisticated embroidery, transparent tops, and raffia hats, which are also worn with total crochet ensembles. «Butterflies have been a symbol of life beyond death since pre-Hispanic times. They are celebrated here on November 2 still». (All rights reserved)